SILVERSTONE (England) - FORMULA One frontrunner Jenson Button and world champion Lewis Hamilton compared past and present pain on Thursday and agreed they would not have wanted it any other way.

The two British drivers' worlds have turned upside down since 2008, with the also-ran now the runaway leader while the champion struggles.

SENSATIONAL DEBUT Hamilton, sensational in his debut year in 2007 when he racked up nine podiums in his first nine races and then became the youngest champion at 23 last season, has scored just nine points in 2009 for McLaren. The dominant winner at Silverstone last year, by a huge 68 seconds, the best he can hope for 12 months on is a points finish. ... more

'We have been given what we have been given and that's the way it is, you wouldn't change it for the world,' said Button, chasing his seventh win in eight races for Brawn GP after two demoralising years with Honda.

'Even though I've been through a lot of tough times in the past... I've always said that I think the decisions I have made or what I have had to deal with, I wouldn't change as it makes you who you are.

'I wouldn't change my career in the slightest,' he told a British Grand Prix news conference.

Button, who takes the view that what does not break you makes you stronger, scored only three points last year and started this season with just one win in 153 starts.

After making his debut as a 20-year-old with Williams, his career has been a roller-coaster ride through the troughs of a bad year with Renault to third place overall with BAR in 2004.

He had to pay heavily to get out of a contract with Williams, committing himself to a long-term deal with Honda only for the Japanese manufacturer to announce last December that they were pulling out.

This season the 29-year-old took a hefty pay cut to stay with Honda's successors Brawn and has been rewarded beyond his wildest dreams. -- REUTERS