MPH: Mark Hughes also on...

Our leading news story last week was that Honda is the team leading the chase for the services of Fernando Alonso into next year. "Well, why wouldn't we be after him?" said a senior member of the team in Canada. "We're aspiring to be the best, we're confident we're going to make a big step forwards next year, we have better foundations in place than ever before. So we think we're finally going to be in a position to be able to justify hiring a double world champion.

"In the past we've had elements of the package that were right, and when things aligned well they enabled us to show strongly from time to time - such as in 2004 - but without all the pieces being in place you're never going to get that momentum; you're always going to be relying on things outside your control aligning in a way that happens to work in your favour.

"With the investment we've made, the changes we've brought on, the hiring of Ross Brawn - and a major change in regulation that is going to wipe everyone's technical slate clean, we finally have all the foundations in place. It's just a question of building upon them now - and we'd see getting someone of Fernando's stature as part of that building process."

It was left unsaid but was very much implicit that, if Honda succeeded in signing Alonso, the driver departing to make way for him would be Rubens Barrichello, not Jenson Button. There was therefore some irony in the fact that Rubens then led the race on Sunday while Jenson trailed around at the back.

Yes, there were reasons for this that weren't entirely to do with the respective merits of the drivers' performances: Button had suffered a gearbox failure in Q1, leaving him mired at the back of the grid; and Barrichello's combination of ninth on the grid with a one-stop fuel strategy meant there were many faster cars behind him on race day, unable to pass. But it did neatly encapsulate the doubts that many still have about Button's ultimate stature.

On raw ability, Button can beat Alonso...

I'd like to say here that I believe Button's raw ability at conjuring lap time from a racing car - the prime prerequisite for any racing driver - is as high as, and maybe even higher, than anyone else's on the grid, and he is without doubt F1's fastest wet-weather driver. But he doesn't always seem to have full access to his immense gift. The reasons why are probably many and varied. But the critical question is: 'are they surmountable?'

Jenson's driving style is textbook perfect: wonderfully smooth, millimetre precise, beautifully fluid lines and exquisite throttle control. Give him a car that responds to this, that has a front end instantly grippy enough to allow him to place it exactly where he needs it to be, and he will produce high-momentum laps that would leave even the great Alonso a little perplexed. Give him a car that has these characteristics and is as good as the best in terms of aero efficiency and engine strength, and he is easily good enough to go head to head with Alonso for a world title.

Give him these circumstances plus a wet race, and no-one will see which way he went.

The questions only begin arising when you move away from this ideal set of circumstances. There are times when the technically perfect driving style is not the most appropriate. For example, days when the tyres don't come up to their operating temperature quickly enough: then you need to get load into them quickly, harshly even - the way that Alonso or Robert Kubica does.

There are times when Jenson's preferred early-off-the-brakes, high-momentum entry doesn't seem to work as well as late-on-the-brakes, super-high pedal loads - the way that Felipe Massa and Mark Webber tend to drive. Sometimes technical perfection is not the answer because the circumstances are not technically perfect.

Sometimes the car will generate its best lap time when in an unbalanced state - just because of the way the regulations have pushed car design, or the type of tyre that has resulted from the single-supply era, or the way the general characteristics of the car work with the track surface and temperature.

There is an almost infinite number of factors trying to take the car away from technical perfection. And sometimes Button doesn't seem to adapt as well as, say, Barrichello. Or Alonso.

...But he'd need enormous application

There have been drivers that never gained proper access to their full talent over a sustained period, even when given a good car - step forward Juan Pablo Montoya - because their mental make-up didn't allow it. Juan's personality was perfectly suited to improvisation and ambush, less to sustained application. Button doesn't have the gung-ho, indomitable psychology of an Alonso - and some see that as the reason he won't ever be a champion. But that's to misunderstand a couple of things:

1) he has a deep but quiet belief in the immensity of his own ability;

2) there have been multiple world champions in the past without that visible strutting arrogance - Alain Prost for example - but that doesn't mean it's not there.

Button's current limitations are not of ability or psychology, but in adaptation. Can he bend that ability to the necessities of the moment, now that he has Brawn alongside to help recognise such moments, and may be facing the challenge that Alonso would represent?

Quite often it has been Barrichello who comes up with the depth of understanding of the car's dynamics that allows the engineers to move the whole thing forwards - and Button then benefits. That in itself is not necessarily a damning trait - the same thing often used to happen to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari when Barrichello was alongside him.

But when it did, it fascinated Michael, who would study it and then adapt his driving to it. And if Button is to convincingly take on Alonso in the same car next year - something he is capable of doing - then that's the sort of application he'll need. And he'll need to do it immediately, before Alonso gets the chance of making the whole thing revolve round him. That was something Alonso didn't manage to do at McLaren because of the specific nature of that team and the competitive intensity of Lewis Hamilton.

If Alonso is seriously considering joining Honda, then he will be right to be wary of the strength of the intra-team challenge he may get from Button. But that isn't to say that Jenson doesn't need to be analysing every part of his game in microscopic detail and a lot of depth.