Mika Hakkinen has added to the consensus that
Jenson Button should have plied his trade outside of
Formula One this season, warning the Briton that he has a tough year ahead of him.
Hakkinen's words follow closely on the heels of similar sentiments held by three fellow champions - Jacques Villeneuve, Jackie Stewart and Jody Scheckter - all of whom feel that the 20-year old Button is graduating too early.
"I think it would have been better for him to have waited and got experience and knowledge of F3000," Hakkinen observed, "The next few years could be a nightmare for him, because the team [Williams] will not be in the top league. When you are young and you get criticism, it is very hard to take - I just think he should have waited."
Ironically, Hakkinen was one of the last drivers to make the jump from Formula Three - where Button finished third in the British series last year - to Formula One. The Finn joined a waning Lotus outfit straight from sealing the British title in 1990, but admits that he would probably have not lasted long had he been thrown into the cauldron with one of the top teams.
Button takes the plunge with
Williams just a year after the Grove operation attempted to resurrect double Champcar titleist Alex Zanardi's F1 career. The fact that the Italian is currently pondering whether to retire after failing to score a point in 1999 only serves to highlight Button's task. Fellow Briton
David Coulthard echoes Hakkinen's thoughts, having already trodden the path Button is about to take.
"My situation was different to Jenson's, because I did F3, F3000 and over a year as test driver," the Scot said, "but I still found it tough [coming into the race team]."
