Wheel of fortune turns for Button

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London: Jenson Button's successes and Lewis Hamilton's woes have provided Formula One with a storyline that only fantasists would have believed possible this time last year.

Button, who scored just three points last season while 23-year-old fellow Briton Hamilton bagged 98 on his way to becoming the sport's youngest world champion, has gone from tail-ender to runaway leader in an implausible and entirely unpredictable sequence of events.

Seemingly on the grand prix drivers' scrapheap six months ago when his Honda team pulled out, Button has made a comeback with Brawn GP that ranks as one of the most headline-grabbing in any sport.

In front of his home crowd at Silverstone this weekend, he could become the first British driver to win seven of the first eight races of a season -- a feat on a par with Michael Schumacher's record year of dominance with Ferrari in 2004.

The fact that Button has been around for so long already -- he had taken only one win from 153 starts before March -- has added to the sense of disbelief.

So too has the sight of McLaren's Hamilton, with just nine points so far this year after two sensational seasons, struggling to score.

For some it is further proof that Formula One is all about the car, even a barely-branded one such as Button's.

“I am happy for him (Button), he's a nice guy and he deserves it,” Toyota's Italian driver Jarno Trulli told Reuters recently. “He has never had a chance and now he's having the chance and using it.

“It proves how important the car is in this business. This year so far just shows how important is the team and the car in your career. No more than that.” TEAM EFFORT Button has a ready reply to those who would belittle his achievements: “When you are in a football team you don't say how much was the goalkeeper worth, how much was the defender, the striker?,” he said.

“It's a team effort, and that's what Formula One is.

“I'm the guy driving the car, but there are 400-odd people building it and putting it together, and we work together.” Button could not show off his talents, to the watching masses at least, last year because his Honda was shockingly uncompetitive. When it caught fire in the final race in Brazil, it burned unmourned.