Webber the Biggest Future Threat, Says Button

BAR driver Jenson Button believes Mark Webber will offer the biggest threat to the World Championship title in years to come, surpassing current stars such as Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Williams confirmed a long-term deal with Webber last week, and the 27-year-old Australian will move to the Grove-based team at the end of the season, after two years with Jaguar and a previous season with Minardi.

Button, who is currently lying in third in the World Drivers Championship, was asked during a Lucky Strike promotional tour in South Africa who he considers will be the future challengers, and while Button said Montoya, Alonso and Raikkonen were "fast" - he said the one most to watch is Webber, and explained this was down to Webber's exceptional commitment.

"I've worked out with Mark," Button told Atlas F1's Dieter Rencken, "and the amount of effort he puts into his training is incredible. Speed is one thing, but effort is another, and I've been with him, and can tell you he works really, really hard..."

Webber himself told Atlas F1, in an interview published this week, that he has yet to achieve the results he is working for but said hard work has been the key for his F1 career so far.

"It's hard to talk about why things have gone the way they have in Formula One so far," the Australian said. "I've worked hard, I suppose. [But] I've still got so much more to achieve. I've got good people around me, and that's been really helpful to me - so just hard work, and keeping it simple."

Read about Button's visit to South Africa in The Weekly Grapevine

Read about Mark Webber in David Cameron's Boy Wonder