Contrasting emotions for the relaxed Button and under-pressure Hamilton

That was certainly the case recently when Britain’s national F1 scribes caught up with Button in the unusual surroundings of the Cadogan Arms on the King’s Road over a pint and a game of pool.

For once, as we interviewed Button we were not in some far-flung place sat in one of McLaren’s hospitality units with the screaming sound of a F1 engine serving as a backdrop.

Instead, here was Button, seemingly out of his comfort zone, yet as comfortable as you could wish to see him, looking healthy and tanned, and dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt.

Some 700 miles away, team-mate Lewis Hamilton was putting in the hard graft, churning out kilometres of testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya in the MP4-27, the team’s latest challenger.

It is a car Button hopes can provide him with a platform to a rare feat in the sport – becoming a two-time champion – of which there have only been 15 in F1 history.

After gloriously taking his maiden title 29 months ago in October 2009, a year remembered for Brawn GP’s phoenix-like rise from Honda’s ashes, the prospect of a second was never in his thoughts.

If Button had opted to retire there and then he would have done so content, safe in the knowledge he had one championship to his name which would never be taken away from him.

But two years at McLaren have altered his mindset, made him feel a second championship is not so fanciful an idea after all, not now he has proven himself at McLaren, earning the respect of everyone within the team.

That was underlined last year when, for the first time in Hamilton’s entire single-seater career stretching back to 2001, the 27-year-old found himself beaten by a team-mate.

It was no fluke either. How could it be with a season encompassing 19 grands prix?

Admittedly, Hamilton had his issues, but in F1 there is no room for emotion and mental angst to cloud your vision and judgment.

In the background, Button serenely went about his business, with great victories in Canada, Hungary – perfectly written on the occasion of his 200th grands prix – and Japan.

With Sebastian Vettel dominant, Button realistically achieved the best he could have hoped for, finishing as runner up and ahead of Hamilton.

Right now Button could not be happier, with life and his career. He loves McLaren and they love him, and it shows.

To make the union complete there is just one thing missing – that world title.

“My first year at McLaren I initially thought would be very tough, moving to a new team, but it was a pretty good year really, a very good learning year,” said Button.

“Last year I felt I did the best with the car I had, that I really grew with the team, felt a big part of McLaren, not just a driver, but a big part of the team.

“So there are no excuses this year. I feel we have everything.

“The relationship I have with my engineers and mechanics is very good, and there’s a really good understanding there.

“There’s nothing to fall back and say ‘This is the reason why we didn’t win in 2012’.

“So I’m very happy now with my position within the team, and to win the world championship with McLaren would be amazing.

“To win anything would be amazing, but with a team you’ve been with for two years, have such a good relationship with and feel a big part of after such a short period, it would mean more than just arriving and driving the best car.

“For me, winning the title with this team would mean as much as it did the first time around.”

At that time Button thought there would be no greater high, so in those few short sentences you can see exactly what it would mean to Button to become world champion with McLaren.

They are no hollow words either, no bravado ahead of another F1 campaign, but the genuine thoughts and feelings of a man eager to prove 2009 was no fluke, that he didn’t just luck into a car at the right time when at the start of the year he thought he was on the scrapheap. This year, Button is out to prove a point. Conversely, the next few months will arguably be the most important of Hamilton’s life since he first burst onto the Formula 1 scene five years ago.

The rookie then has become an F1 veteran now fast approaching 100 grands prix, a milestone he will reach in Germany in July should there be no late alterations to the calendar, and all being well.

Following a turbulent 2011, when numerous incidents on track and in his personal life made for damaging headlines, all eyes are again on Hamilton.

Initially, it will be to see whether a winter of reflection has been good for his soul, as he claims, and to see if his mind is now free of the distractions that so clouded his judgment and erased the normally cheerful element of his character.

Secondly, and after two years predominantly spent trailing Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, for Hamilton and McLaren it is now a question of whether they have built a car that can mount a serious challenge for the title.

Which leads us neatly into point No 3, whether Hamilton has the cutting edge to compete at the top. If so it is certain he will remain with the team that has been home since he was 13.

But if the 27-year-old fails, then as F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone recently pointed out, he believes there will be a parting of the ways.