'The car definitely counts for a great deal' Monday 1st June 2009 - PlanetF1.com Mark Webber is the latest to add his thoughts to the debate over whether it's the car or the driver who wins the races, saying one only has to compare the differences between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton's two most recent seasons to get the answer. Last season, racing in an under-performing Honda, Button netted just three World Championship points, whereas this year, in a highly-impressive Brawn GP, the Brit is leading the Drivers' standings, a healthy 16 points ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello. In sharp contrast Lewis Hamilton has gone from the highs of winning the 2008 World title to the lows of struggling to even finish in the points in this campaign. And this, Webber reckons, is proof that the car really does count for a lot when it comes to winning or losing races. "The car is incredibly powerful, there's no question about it. Jenson got lapped so many times last year and now he's lapping people and he hasn't changed anything," Webber told The Times. "I think we're all pretty gifted and talented at what we do, but as Lewis is finding out, you need the opportunity and the car to drop the lap times in. "It's like the 50m [swimming] final at the Olympics. The guy in lane 8 is a phenomenal swimmer. The guys in lanes 4 and 5 are two - or three-tenths down the road [quicker] and it's the same in our business. "For the past three years, Jenson has had to swim 60 metres, so he is never going to do anything - now he has to swim 45! This is uncharted water for him but he has coped fantastic. "These are the things that people in our industry understand but it's very hard to explain it to Mr and Mrs Jones. Is there a Drivers' World Championship? Or is it just a car Championship? "I think Jenson had one top-eight finish last year and now he could be World Champion. That's incredible." Asked to answer his own question about whether there is a Drivers' World Championship, Webber said: "I think ultimately there is, yes, because even when you are winning races like Jenson is at the moment, and like Damon Hill did in the Williams, and like Michael Schumacher did in some of his Ferraris - by 50 seconds down the road - you still are performing under pressure. "You still are delivering. You still are performing against a batch of guys who know what they are doing and are trying to take what you've got. What Jenson is doing is still a challenge."
I agree with Webber, but also agree that the fact that Jenson and Rubens have performed so well, with no retirements so far, is a testament to just how cool they are under pressure.
