Button upbeat despite conceding defeat

Button upbeat despite conceding defeat

 

Jenson Button has promised to continue racing his heart out for the remainder of this year's Formula One campaign despite conceding the title race is over.


For the third successive year Button had to settle for runner-up in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, leaving him trailing winner Sebastian Vettel by 117 points with 150 available.
Button, however, concedes whilst the championship is drawing to a close, it will not stop his competitive instincts kicking in as he will keep on gunning for race wins in the final six events.
Asked if the title had now gone, the McLaren star replied: "Yeah, there's no chance.
"We've known that for a little while, but as drivers you want a bit of hope. It won't change anything though.
"We're still going to have amazing racing, like it has been in the last few races.
"Whatever we do, because we are racers, competitive, be it driving in F1, karting or triathlons, you want to win.
"That doesn't suddenly change because there's no championship to win. You still want to win every race.
"The emotion when you cross the line to win a grand prix is...it's very different to winning a world championship.
"You build up to win a world championship, whereas a race is just there. Suddenly you've won and it's such an amazing experience.
"So the racing is still going to be great, and that's what we love."
It would appear one of the few other remaining targets is to finish the best of the rest, and in turn ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the standings.
Hamilton has never been beaten by a team-mate over the course of a season, and whilst he is eager to continue that scenario, Button is adopting a more philosophical approach.
Dismissing suggestions the dynamic will change in the team if he did beat Hamilton, Button added: "It will probably change more for you guys (the media) than anything in the team for us.
"The points don't mean so much at the end of the year unless you win the championship, so I don't care about the points.
"I'm happy with the way I'm driving, with what the team are doing, with the way the car is, and that's the most important thing.
"If I continue driving like this then I'll be happy at the end of the year."
As he admits it is "the little things" that have not fallen into place recently, despite a record of first, third and second in the last three races.
"We've had a couple of little mistakes, even in the last few races," added Button.
"That hurts you when you're fighting against Red Bull and Sebastian because they are pretty flawless at the moment.
"Seb complained on Sunday about having a bad start - he lost one place! I went from third to sixth.
"So it's something we need to work on, to get everything together. You can't challenge them unless you do.
"Our pace is there, I feel good in the car, I feel confident. It's just getting everything together and then we can really fight for the wins."