Button turns attention to regaining title next season

OUTGOING Formula One world champion Jenson Button is already burning with hunger to reclaim the title next year.

Button relinquished his crown on Sunday in Brazil when he could finish no higher than fifth, with the other four remaining contenders all ahead of him on the track. It means for the final time this season in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Button will sport the number one on his McLaren following a debut year with the team he largely enjoyed, even if he feels he occasionally has let himself down.

“This has been a good season and a lot of stuff we’ve done this year we’ll gain a lot of experience for next season,” said Button. The car is good, but there are areas where we still need to improve, we know that, and it’s about making sure we do improve those areas for next year.”

Despite many people warning him against joining McLaren in the first place, Button insists he has had “a good year” as champion.

“It hasn’t just been about me being world champion, it was about me making one of the biggest changes of my life, in my career,” added the 30-year-old. “It was a hell of a challenge, a risk that a lot of people thought was the wrong one, but I needed to change my direction and this was the right place for me.”

Meanwhile Fernando Alonso yearns to put Red Bull to the sword this weekend.

“It is going to be a stressful weekend for all of us but this is Formula One and anything can happen,” said Alonso, who can end the season as he started it in Bahrain – with a win.

Alonso currently leads with 246 points to Webber’s 238 and 231 for Vettel, who led a Red Bull one-two in Brazil last Sunday to secure the Austrian-owned but British-based team a first constructors’ crown.

“I just need to finish second,” Alonso said. “It doesn’t matter who wins in Abu Dhabi if I finish second. With that, the problem is finished.”

Plain-talking Mark Webber has his own plan and is ready to complete his transformation from perceived journeyman to popular champion and end Australia’s 30-year wait for a third world beater to join Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, 24 points off Alonso and needing a miracle to regain his lost 2008 crown, could yet defy the bookmakers’ 100-1 odds against him with the upset to end all upsets in front of a sell-out crowd.