Will Button support Hamilton?

With Lewis Hamilton’s retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix, the Brit’s hopes of winning the 2012 Formula One World Championship took a severe knock.

Going into the race weekend, Hamilton was second in the championship and after going on to take pole position around the street track the McLaren driver seemed to be coasting to a certain victory and another crucial 25 points for the championship.

But a gearbox failure ruined Hamilton’s weekend and with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finishing on the podium, the gap between Hamilton and the leader was extended to 52 points.

With Jenson Button a further 23 points adrift, for the past couple of races media in the paddock and the fans at the track have wondered if Button will have play a supporting role in a bid to aid Lewis Hamilton’s diminishing title hopes.

At the end of August, we on VitalF1 asked that very question and the users of the site were completely torn, with a 50-50 split over what McLaren and Button should do.

A month on and it seems that McLaren boss Whitmarsh remains in a similar position, although he believes that Button may make the first moves towards making the final six races of the season a team game.

‘Jenson has had a conversation with me. He initiated it, He is an immensely competitive individual, but he’s a team player. McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh told Sky Sports.

‘Things that happen in the future will come from within him. I’ll never ask and I don’t want to ask. If he chooses to do something in the best interests of the team, that’s up to him.’

Speaking after the race in Singapore Button told the media: ‘It’s hard for anyone [to catch Alonso] except Seb at the moment,’

‘It’s between those two but there’s still a lot of people with a long shot. That’s what we’re all going to go for.’