Is there anyone out there who can undo Button? Jenson, that is, who according to the British bookies is in pole position with checkered flag already poised, odds on to become the BBC Sports Personality of the Year on December 13.

 

And why not, demand the petrolheads? Well I can give a fistul of good reasons. In no particular order, as they say on Strictly: Beth Tweddle, Jessica Ennis, Phillips Oduwu, Victoria Pendleton and Tom Daley, all Olympians and surely all worthier of the viewers' votes than a man who wouldn't have got anywhere but for the mechanics tinkering under his bonnet.
 

It’s not just that  I find motor racing has become a bore but because the millions the BBC have splurged on covering this season it is grossly insulting to those sports now missing out on valuable screen space. Here is a stone-rich sport and yet only this week the boss of Silverstone was bemoaning lack of public funding. It is rather like Manchester City bleating because they can’t get Lottery money to buy Kaka. Next we'll be hearing Bernie Ecclestone has been is blowing into Jacques Rogge’s ear to try and get it into the Olympics.
 

Formula One is now stands totally discredited as a sport, with proven cheating, dodgy self-regulating and sleazy adminstration (one boss likes his bottom spanked and another who thinks Hitler wasn’t all bad). Button himself seems a decent enough bloke, but how can someone who hasn't even been on the podium in his last 10 races, hitherto hadn't won a race in nine years and only stayed ahead of the rest this season because the Brawn engineers had fitted a legally dubious "double diffuser" – whatever that might be – in his opening successes claim to be Britain's number one sports icon? More than ever it is the car not the man behind the wheel who wins Grand Prixs these days. So let's hope the public can keep Button off the podium.
 

All of the previously mentioned quintet achieved greater things in 2009 than Ross Brawn’s supercharged chauffeur. My vote would go unhesitatingly to Tweddle –the Beth of British.
 

She presses all the right buttons. Not only has she now won a world gymnastics title twice but this month she literally picked herself off the floor to do so in an activity which requires the ultimate in fitness, dedication and athletic flexibility. Moreover she is an absolute charmer whose annual funding wouldn't keep Button in spare tyres for a single race. She's unassuming, still relatively unsung and a perfect role model for the hundreds of thousands of kids she has inspired to join the waiting lists at gymnastics clubs throughout the land.
 

By comparison, Button should be at the back of the grid, or even a non-starter.
 

So how ironic that our bandwagoning Prime Minister should choose to dispatch his personal congratulations almost before Button had finished spraying the champers yet had to be reminded that on the same day Britain had seen another world champion crowned. Tweddle (pictured) says she still awaits Number 10's promised letter. Oh Gord! No doubt Mr Brown forgot there was a postal strike.

You can make out strong cases for heptathlete Ennis, an equally versatile and personable queen of more athletics disciplines than Button has gears. Or Idowu, who has at last delivered the goods and reminded us that there's more to hop, step and jump than Jonathan Edwards; Pendleton, delectable and again devastating in cycling's world track championships, and tiny Tom, a world diving champion and still only 15.
 

Also giving Button a good fight there’s Amir Khan, back from a potentially career-shattering defeat to become a world boxing champion while working assidiously to bring together those from different ethnic communities. And wouldn't David Haye throw a spanner into the gear box should he land a big right hander on the chops of Russian giant Nikolay Valuey next week.

As with Olympic bids, favourites seem to have more of the hex factor than the X factor about them. Lewis Hamilton didn't win last year – but mind you the Beeb didn't seem too bothered as it was departinjg ITV who had signed the season's cheque for the sport. Not so this time.

What we do gather from sources inside the Corporation is that they are anticipating a groundswell of support for a surprise outsider -  Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs, who would be a sentimental and popular choice as the first footballer to win the award since David  Beckham in 2001.
 

Then there's Tony McCoy, who rode his 3000th National Hunt winner this year, although many punters, given the option, surely would like to place their bet on wonder horse Sea The Stars, sport’s most popular four-legged friend since Red Rum.
 

What an irony if Button was to be beaten by horsepower…

 

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics ,several football World Cups and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.