Now it’s a battle to prove a point in ‘Piranha Club’

Jake Humphrey
20 Nov 2009

Moments after it was announced yesterday via Twitter and began hurtling around the news wires and internet message boards, my phone buzzed.

I looked down at the text message, Jenson announced @ McLaren'. Then I looked back up and there was the man at the centre of the story, sitting right beside me.

With an incredible irony that he would have been totally oblivious to, Jenson was, at that very moment, describing to me in an interview the emotions of winning the drivers' championship for Brawn GP.

It was a stark reminder of the ruthless world of Formula One. You see, F1 is a sport not bereft of an ego or two, where the weak are crushed and the strong constantly jockey for position at the top. It's affectionately known as The Piranha Club but how will Jenson fair swimming in new waters alongside the biggest fish of all?

Firstly, he has to come to terms with the fact that just as Brawn GP become an F1 powerhouse, adding the might of Mercedes to the genius of Ross Brawn, they have allowed the world champion to walk away.

I've noticed this year how much F1 drivers love being loved and now JB has gone elsewhere to feel valued but walked into a team that have, for the past three years, been centered on one man.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren's guy since he was 11, has had the team built around him from top to bottom. I've found him to be quite personable but also a driver who simply won't tolerate being beaten.

Double world champion Fernando Alonso arrived, couldn't handle it and scuttled back to Renault and Heikki Kovalainen was next.

So why will it be any different for Jenson? Well, despite the myth that some people like to peddle, he is an incredible talent. He's reminiscent of Alain Prost, such is the smoothness of his driving. But this presents his first problem. His style is diametrically opposed to that of Lewis.

Can the team really design a car to suit both styles? The chances are that the Lewis DNA will run through the new MP4-25, which is a potentially huge issue for the new boy.

McLaren's big task is to achieve the seemingly impossible and run a team with two top-line drivers. They had Prost and Ayrton Senna in the late 80s and that ended in the gravel trap as their desire to beat each other overtook everything else.

It now becomes an incredibly interesting game of puffing out your chest in private, not giving your team-mate an inch, and proving just who is the more worthy recent world champion. So, who do I think will come out on top? Well, until we see how fast the car is and whether it suits Jenson's style, it's almost impossible to call.

The important thing is that this isn't just about being the best driver any more, it's about being the best British driver of a generation. Success is likely to be decided as much on the track as in the drivers' minds and rest assured the BBC will be there to see what happens every step of the way.