He took his time in getting to F1 - on the track at least, as he spent so many years testing for Honda - so it was good to see him get his chance last year, albeit in a car which was pretty far down the grid.

When you are in that position, where you aren’t challenging for the win or even points, all you can hope for is to be ahead of your teammate - after all then you can really honestly blame the car for your lack of performance.

How long can someone go through life hoping and promising to live up to their expectations?

Jenson Button seems to have been in F1 for years now, and has come a long way since he appeared as a freshfaced youngster full of promise as Britain’s new best hope of being World Champion.

Of course, most of the hype is built up by the media and often the actual sportsman has little control over that side of things, but it is they who suffer if things don’t go according to plan.

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to have a quick look at the British drivers ahead of the 2008 Formula One season which starts next Sunday, 16th March. First up is Lewis Hamilton…

Where to start - at this time last year noone had any idea how Lewis Hamilton would cope with life in F1.

Sure, we had seen him racing superbly in GP2, and we knew Ron Dennis would have ensured Lewis was vprepared better then any rookie in F1 history so should his performances really have surprised us?

The England football team has been without a manager for a couple of weeks now and already we have been inundated with stories linking everyone from Martin O’Neill to Sir Alex Ferguson with the job.

One by one, the supposed candidates have counted themselves out of the running, but then without a firm offer of work they would say that wouldn’t they?  Why run the risk of upsetting your own team’s fans and more importantly your current employer by openly courting another job in public?

But assuming the likes of O’Neill, Curbishley etc are all geniunely not after the job then who is really in the frame?

So, for the first time in 14 years, there will be no country from Britain or Ireland at a major football tournament.

Boo hoo.

From a personal standpoint, and this is something I never thought I would be saying, I think that the order of home nations who deserved to get to the finals given the way they have performed in the qualifiers is:

1.  Scotland
2.  Northern Ireland
3.  England
4.  Wales

Supporters may not agree on the exact order, but I think only the most ardent England supporter could argue against the fact that Scotland have performed much better than anyone expected - including us Scots it has to be said.