Watson and Symonds give their view
Jenson Button is not one of Formula One`s top three drivers, according to two experts.
The first expert is John Watson, the Ulsterman who won five Grand Prix in the 70s and 80s, who said Button should have won at least one or two of his 102 career starts by now.
“I`m convinced (that) if Michael (Schumacher) had been in the BAR, they would have won races by now,” 59-year-old John Watson told the BBC.

The other F1 expert, Renault`s executive director Pat Symonds, worked with 26-year-old Button at Renault (Benetton) in 2001 and 2002.

Unlike Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, he reckons Button is not a `division one` F1 pilot.

Symonds said: “You have this big division two, which has ... your Giancarlos, your Barrichellos, your Montoyas, and of course Jenson. He`s outside the top three, but probably inside the top six.”

John Watson, meanwhile, criticised Button for damaging his reputation in the BAR-Williams contract sagas of 2004 and 2005, and for emerging in the lifestyle newspapers too often.

“He has to rationalise that aspect,” Watson said, “and put it into context.”

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