Button fears backlash after dream triumph

The Briton, who led Rubens Barrichello home on a remarkable day for the team at the Australian Grand Prix, is expecting his rivals to quickly close the gap on the former Honda outfit. And although the next race in Malaysia is only six days away, Button thinks his team could be under pressure there.

"I hope we are quick all season and I hope we have an advantage all season, but I don't think that's going to be the case," he said today.

"Rubens and I are both going to be very competitive, pushing each other very hard if you look at the last few years that we've been team-mates. But I've a feeling other teams are going to be on us very quickly, and when we get to a different type of circuit, maybe in Malaysia, some other cars which weren't so competitive here will be.

"Sebastian Vettel's pace surprised me a little. I didn't think Red Bull were quite as quick as they were in the race when we watched them in practice, but their pace seemed to be good.

"So it wasn't a walkaway victory, and it's not going to be easy for us over the next few races. But we'll be competitive together. We're both in the same position as we have a good car, so there's no reason why we shouldn't be fighting at the front."

Despite Button's fears about other teams, he does think Brawn can improve too.

"It wasn't my best race, but I still won, so I am chuffed to bits," said Button.

"And the exciting thing is, I know there is more room for improvement from myself and from the team."

Certainly, the current car is a huge step up from the Honda Button was saddled with last term.
"That car was a handful," he said. "Every corner we got to, we didn't know what was going to happen. It was a beast, that's what we had to deal with. As a racing driver it's always difficult when you're ready to achieve but the equipment won't let you show your skills.

"But getting into a car as competitive as the one we have now just feels natural, it feels like this is where I should be. I already feel that the car is part of me."

This was only Button's second Grand Prix win in a nine-year career — his other came in Hungary in 2006 — but his Melbourne triumph has a special place in the record books.

Not since 1954, when legendary five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio led home Karl Kling for Mercedes in the French Grand Prix, has a team taken the top two places on their debut.

It was also the first victory for a team on their maiden outing since Wolf in 1977, with such statistics underlining the enormity of their achievement.

No wonder, Ross Brawn described yesterday as a "fairy-tale". Always calm, cool and collected, the bespectacled Brawn is the technical and tactical genius who steered Michael Schumacher to two world championships with Benetton and another five at Ferrari. But his greatest coup was saving the team from the scrapheap after the parent company in Japan pulled the financial plug in December.

How the Honda hierarchy must be regretting that decision, even if it was precipitated by the global financial crisis.

They have even provided a multi-million pound funding package for this season, a cheaper alternative to making 700 workers redundant.

But the Brawns, now powered by Mercedes engines, carry no recognition of that support.

Instead, the Virgin name appeared on the flanks and in front of the cockpit on the cars raced by Button and Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello in Melbourne.

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has lost count of the number of teams who have courted his backing in the past. So why take the plunge now? He admitted that recent cost-cutting measures in Formula One had made the sport more attractive as an investment and it will also provide a vehicle to promote a "clean" fuel Virgin are developing.

But Branson was also drawn to the man in charge.

He said: "I knew Ross Brawn was the most brilliant engineer on the circuit and I thought we'd take a gamble by supporting him.

"Only six weeks ago it didn't look like their car was ever going to race. It looked like all the people who had worked for the Honda team would be out of work and we would never have known what a brilliant car this was."