Schumacher tips Button for title

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher believes that Jenson Button will hold onto his points lead to successfully become the second consecutive British F1 Champion this year. The German, who retired at the end of 2006, sees Red Bull's engine situation as a large disadvantage to the championship-leading Brawn team.

With four races still to go this season, Red Bull Racing is perilously close making use of a ninth engine for both of its drivers and therefore facing a 10-place grid drop. Since the start of 2009, every driver in the field is allocated 8 powerplants although Mark Webber has just one fresh unit remaining with team-mate Sebastian Vettel already using his.

"Looking at the situation, I would pretty much expect Jenson to win this title," Schumacher said in the Race of Champions (ROC) podcast ahead of the Shanghai event in early November. "It's very hard to take it away, particularly knowing the problems and the reliability issues they have had at Red Bull."

A title win for Somerset's Button would mean, not only had the 29-year-old wrapped up the crown in his tenth Formula One season, but Britain would enjoy two successive Drivers' Championship victories for the first time since Jackie Stewart stole Graham Hill's title 30 years ago.

Source: http://f1.gpupdate.net

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