Something seems to happen to the English when they have won the biggest prize ? ask Jenson Button
? Check out all the F1 drivers' title permutations
Jenson Button is such an Englishman, isn't he? After a decade of struggle in the unforgiving world of Formula One, he finally captured the world championship last year. Yesterday he lost it, and his inability to defend his crown perhaps says something about the nation's attitude to winning.
He certainly enjoyed his year as the reigning champion. Success had lifted the twin burdens of his own expectations and other people's scepticism from his shoulders, and as the season progressed he showed the same cheerful, relaxed, congenial countenance through fair weather and foul. But although he won two of the early rounds of the 2010 series with polished drives in Melbourne and Shanghai, and stayed in statistical contention for the title until yesterday afternoon in S�o Paulo, his genuine chance of winning back-to-back championships had evaporated long before the season approached its climax.
He thinks he will be in a better position next year, having spent a season acclimatising himself to a new team. History, however, is against him. England has produced more than twice as many Formula One world champions ? eight ? as any other nation: next come Brazil and Finland with three, followed by Italy, Germany, Scotland, Austria and the USA (two), and lone representatives of Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Canada and Spain. Only one of those Englishmen, however, has managed to win two titles, a remarkable figure when you think that ever since Fangio won five championships in the early days, multiple victories have been a feature of Formula One.
Michael Schumacher won seven, Alain Prost four, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna three, Jim Clark, Mika Hakkinen and Fernando Alonso two. Graham Hill was the English exception, although it could be said that the second of his two titles, in 1968, came as a result of the death of Clark, his Scottish team-mate, early that season. Otherwise there have been single titles for Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton and Button.
Like Button, Hamilton would argue that he is on his way to joining the ranks of multiple winners, and in his case you would not bet against the proposition. But something seems to happen to the English when they have won the biggest prize of all, and not just in motor racing: they enjoy the experience too much, and then suffer a kind of prolonged sporting detumescence.
The once-is-enough phenomenon is most noticeable in team games. There was the success of the 1966 World Cup, followed by a collapse to a not noticeably superior German team four years later and seemingly endless decades of disappointment. After the 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph came the bizarre progress to defeat in the 2007 final, and the subsequent fumbling by administrators and players alike. The 2005 Ashes triumph preceded the terrible hangover of a whitewash in the return series 18 months later.
But individuals, including coaches, also suffer from the inability to prolong success. When Bradley Wiggins finished a fine fourth in the 2009 Tour de France, he was spoken of as a favourite for this year's race. He finished 24th. The admirable Lee Westwood recently dethroned Tiger Woods as the world's No 1 golfer but will he ever win the sequence of majors that would permit him to join the ranks of the greats? And would any other country have failed so conspicuously to make further serious use of the organisational talents of Clive Woodward, the architect of the triumph in Sydney in 2003?
There are exceptions, of course, and perhaps they include Tom Daley, Jessica Ennis, Mark Cavendish (if a Manxman can be called English) and Rebecca Adlington. Maybe England's priorities are elsewhere. Drink the champagne, enjoy the parade to Trafalgar Square, pick up the MBE, and the future will take care of itself. All champions suffer as they climb towards the summit, even those who make it look effortless. The difference between the very good and the all-time great lies in what happens next.
Why Ronaldo kept his shirt on in the heat of the night
Spectators leaving Interlagos by the main gate yesterday evening could pause at a nearby outdoor caf� and sip a caipirinha while watching a big screen on which the familiar figures of Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos were helping Corinthians to take the lead in the Brazilian championship with a 2-0 away win over S�o Paulo in the derby between the city's two big clubs.
At 34, Ronaldo now boasts a girth so formidable that he was the only player not to remove his shirt at the end of a hot evening, having lasted the full 90 minutes after doing most of his work on the pitch from static positions. Roberto Carlos, three years older, looked just as fit as he did in the colours of Internazionale, Real Madrid and Brazil, although his overlapping sprints are no longer rocket-assisted and the ferocious menace has gone from his long-range free kicks. Presumably neither of them needs the money, and they certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves in what may be the last season for both.
Corinthians' second goal was scored by one Dentinho, a forward whose name is presumably inspired by the notable gap between his front teeth, a currently fashionable feature also to be seen on the likes of Vanessa Paradis, Lara Stone and Georgia Jagger.
Smith takes the high road
Bradley Smith, the 19-year-old Oxfordshire motorbike racer whose career has been followed by this column, won the 125cc Grand Prix of Valencia yesterday, a terrific way to finish his apprenticeship in the small-capacity category. Next year he moves up to the 600cc Moto2, one step away from the Lorenzos, Stoners, Rossis and Pedrosas. In 12 months' time we should know whether he is destined to join them and become a long-awaitedsuccessor to the likes of Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Phil Read.
Henry getting hang of soccer
"If you can find any objective measures, you're going to use them," John W Henry said the other day. "The problem is finding relevant data that is meaningful. That might be difficult in football." As he mused on the possible application of the statistics-based approach of the Oakland A's coach Billy Beane to the task of rebuilding Liverpool FC, it sounded as though Anfield's new owner might just be getting the hang of this tricky soccer business.
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