Button’s answer encapsulated the sporting qualities that he and Barrichello have shown — all too rare in a Formula One steeped in scandal and low deeds. “I don’t think it means so much to you to do that,” he said, sitting only a few feet away from Barrichello. “It matters what sort of person you are, but [the title] wouldn’t mean so much to me if I did that or if I did something during the season like stopping the car on the circuit. I would feel like I had cheated myself. If Rubens was a different character, maybe I would think differently and I was in a situation with a team-mate that I hated, but I am not in that situation.”
You will hear a similarly respectful analysis from Barrichello. So, for once, it looks to be a clean fight between team-mates as the pair head down the stretch. There is a mathematical possibility that the championship could be stolen by Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull driver who trails Button by 25 points, but he remains a long shot even if that team could do well on Sunday on a sweeping and fast Japanese circuit that suits their cars.
Button remains the firm favourite and he could sew up matters this weekend if he manages to finish fourth or higher and Barrichello fails to score.
The battle between the two men has been fascinating. The team had been rescued from oblivion by an eleventh-hour management buyout led by Ross Brawn, their new principal, the car was short on pre-season development and Button and Barrichello were at the wrong end of long careers that had appeared to be leading to also-ran status. Then suddenly the Brawn GP 001 came storming out of the garage and Button, in particular, took to it like a natural.
It is said of the 29-year-old Briton that when he gets the right car under him he is unstoppable. And so it was in the early races of the season, when Button put the car on the edge and obliterated the field. He drove fast and true to six victories in seven races, barely touching the wheel to correct a machine that suited his ultra-smooth driving style to a tee. By the Turkish Grand Prix at the beginning of June, it looked to be a case of not if, but when, he would be crowned champion.
Among those in his wake, Barrichello, 37, was struggling to find his form. A naturally more aggressive driver who is particularly sensitive to brake set-up, he could not quite reproduce Button’s pace and he was being written off quickly.
One of the intriguing aspects of Formula One is that although it is a battle of science and of machines, it is also a pugilistic art form. Getting the best out of a car is an instinctive business that all the number-crunching in the world cannot always achieve.
In Barrichello’s case, his unrivalled experience over 17 years in the sport and his undoubted flair for getting the best out of a car finally started to tell as he began to turn the tables on Button from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in mid-June onwards, then drive to race wins himself.
The resurgence of the man ridiculed as a “tortoise” by critics in his native Brazil, who spent years in Michael Schumacher’s shadow at Ferrari, had an immediate impact on Button, who started to lose his way. In part this reflected a problem that the team as a whole were experiencing with getting the car to act on its tyres in different conditions, but Button was also tightening up as he felt pressure building from the other side of the garage.
The Englishman lost his edge in qualifying and for weeks he has had to accept second place on Saturdays to Barrichello and then try to make up ground in the races.
The pair have appeared to be stumbling towards the finish line while others in dramatically improved cars — Hamilton in the McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari — have been showing how it should be done. But winning titles is never easy and both Brawn men are open in saying that they would rather win it in style but will take it however it comes.
So who is favoured in the run-in? Button has the points in the bag, the more stable temperament and has been the more consistent and error-free of the two. Barrichello has the momentum but needs his team-mate to trip up somewhere. It could be here.
The Brazilian loves this circuit and if he wins on Sunday, and Button has a disaster, it could be game-on for the last two rounds at his home track in São Paulo and the final race, the inaugural grand prix in Abu Dhabi.
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