CONGRATULATIONS to Lewis Hamilton on winning the Formula 1 drivers’ world championship for the second time in his superb career.

He amassed 11 wins this season, the most for any non-German driver in a season.

Hamilton holds the record for wins by a British driver and is fifth in the all-time list of career wins with 33.

After a season-long duel with teammate and rival Nico Rosberg, it was Hamilton who came out on top, but not without having to fight tooth and nail to do so.

Latest Sport news

Hamilton now enters his new contract talks with his team Mercedes as the reigning world champion – that’s not a bad bargaining tool to bring to the table.

Having world champion on your CV doesn’t always give you the negotiating power you would expect, though, as Jenson Button can testify.

Button, a former teammate of Hamilton at Brawn GP, won the drivers’ championship in 2009, but still doesn’t have a clue about where his future lies next year.

His team McLaren, have left him hanging as to what he is doing next season.

That is definitely no way to treat one of your own, let alone a former world champion.

McLaren should have given Button an answer either way, telling him if they are keeping him or letting him go.

Jenson has been with McLaren for five years and has been excellent for them; he’s also had a tough year with the loss of his dad.

John Button, who passed away in January this year, had previously never missed a race of 34-year-old Jenson’s career, since he started competing as a child.

On that basis alone, you would have thought McLaren would have relieved him of any further stress.

If he was going to be let go at the end of the season, then it would have given Button the chance to say goodbye properly.

And it gives the fans a chance to do the same too.

If Jenson were to be let go by McLaren now, it would be shame if he never got to have a decent farewell.

THIS happens in football too, where players don’t get the chance of a send off they deserve, but instead just fade away and I’m talking more near the end of their careers.

I saw this first hand with one of my ex-teammates at Leeds United.

Former England star and Leeds legend David Batty never got the farewell to end his brilliant career that he deserved. 

He was robbed of a fabulous send-off from the Elland Road faithful and they were denied the chance to give it to him.

I remember him just being left out mid-season by the then manager Eddie Gray and Batts never playing again.

He finished his career just like that – even though Batts was the most relaxed and unflustered man in the world, I’m sure he would have been annoyed by the way it ended.

It left a sour taste in the mouth and the same thing happened to me.

As sportsmen we all want to have a great career then have the fabulous send-off and ride off in the sunset of retirement.

Not everyone gets the fairytale ending, in fact only a lucky few receive it.

Late on in my career, when thoughts of retirement popped into my head, I always pictured walking out with my four kids, through a tunnel of applauding players into a stadium of applauding fans.

It never happened, but I was lucky enough to call time on my terms.

I hope Jenson Button gets to stay in F1 and when he decides to pack it in, he gets the send-off he deserves.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.