Which way will it play out? On any given race weekend it’s going to come down to whether tyre, brake and fuel management is more important than an ability to manhandle a changing car. With 170kg of fuel on board at the start, a quarter of the car’s weight, the handling characteristics will change throughout each race as the fuel is burned.

Button has a silky driving style, while Hamilton is happy to “drive what you’ve got”. The importance of each requirement will vary according to the track, temperature and tyre compounds. At Monaco last year, Button was the only driver able to make the super soft tyre work. He looked masterful, keeping it on the edge of the performance envelope. This year, with the front tyre reduced in width by 2cm, that ability will be crucial. On the other hand, Button seems unable to adapt if the car is not right, as happened several times in the second half of last season. His precise “one sweep in, one sweep out” turn of the steering wheel simply doesn’t translate if the car is sliding around the track, whereas Hamilton seems to have the ability to wrestle it into submission.

Never one to keep his fury hidden, Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times is unequvoical in his cricitism following Scotland and England's 15-15 draw in the Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield on Saturday. A tryless game in which the ball was frequently kicked rather than run, Jones saw the Six Nations spectacle as emblematic of rugby's general malaise:

AT THE end they couldn’t separate them; they were almost equally bad. England were ludicrously fortunate to finish level with a boisterous Scotland, even though Toby Flood dropped for goal and for some kind of tarnished glory in the dying seconds. It would have been a travesty had he succeeded and a scruffy kick that was easily charged down typified, in terms of execution and spectacle, the match. Tries have become an endangered species. So has flow. So has joy.

The English self-delusion goes on. Such is England’s lack of attacking intent, confidence and direction, it seemed they were almost petrified to go for the win at the end, sending the ball back to Flood when it begged to be driven on. Apart from a few minutes in the third quarter and a reasonably lively bit at the end, they did not exist as an attacking force.

Scotland will go to their graves feeling this was a wonderful chance missed. Dan Parks, who was far more successful than Jonny Wilkinson in ushering in something that passed for an attacking game, struck a post twice. England were also fortunate to be awarded the penalty that gave them the draw, and even more fortunate that Mark Cueto was not dismissed to the sin-bin for killing the ball only a few minutes after the inadequate South African referee Marius Jonker had clearly stated that the next England transgressor would be off.

There were other unedifying aspects. The scrum phases were a nightmare, something that perverted the course of the match with the endless re-setting. But such was the referee’s lack of knowledge and authority, most of the final two minutes were spent trying to get a scrummage to engage properly, when any decent referee would have established what was wrong 75 minutes earlier. Nearly three minutes at the end of the first half were spent getting one scrum sorted. Shocking. The match became a ping-pong of random refereeing decisions and shots at a penalty goal.