Martin Brundle: "Jenson Button is the most complete driver"

[Ray]

Never liked Brundle any time I've watched an ITV covered race. He's quite rude on the grid to people he talks to and his man-loving of Lewis wasn't as bad as that moron Allen, but it was pretty sickening. All media do this in some way though. Peter Windsor is by far the worst in my opinion. At least the two wonderful Brits on SpeedTV keep a level head when they commentate.

[modbaraban]

where can I get Anthony Davidson's commentary?

Only on Fridays, I guess.

[mike]

if button is the most complete driver, then why didnt great teams such as Mclaren, Ferrari and co pick him, while he nearly retired out of formula 1, Ross Brawn keep him, because he is for sure going to be grateful of whatever he gets.
And if he is indeed a "complete" driver, then why didnt him build honda into a championship winning team like what Fernado or Michael did in reault and ferrari?

A complete driver to me is a driver that does his work in the cockpit and lifts the team while he's not. im sure Fernado does a better job at both than Button.

That being said, i still regard Button as a great driver, but 1 season 1 car and a few wins, doesnt make him the greatest of all time.

Remember guys Martin Brundle said last year that the other british driver are simply "jealous of lewis" because he is just a bit too fast, so lewis is faster than the "most" complete driver, and that the "most" complete driver get all jealous of this guy who locks up every corner?

[nae]

some interesting takes on this

until driver, or anyone for that matter, has had the full range of machinery
to work with, it is impossible to comment on there level of completeness.

as people grow older(intentionally choose not to used 'mature') they change
and can combine their previous experience to head into the realm of completness

and now in direct defence of brundle
there are only so many superlatives that a pundit can use to describe a driver
to have a whole thread dissecting the use of the word 'complete' seems odd

[Washngo]

"Jenson Button is the most complete driver on the F1 grid"

Did you ever hear such rubbish.

well, if you are going to start a thread, at least quote the man properly.

What MB said was: Jenson Button proved, with his fifth victory of the season in Monaco, that he is the most complete driver on the Formula 1 grid at the moment.


His article is actually quite a good one, where he explains why Button has impressed him so much this season, even though previously he hadn't.

Here is the rest of it:


The turnaround has been remarkable. He has spent the last few seasons scrambling his way through a series of dismal seasons with Honda, where he made mistakes and often tangled with his rivals towards the back of the field.

Brawn have provided him with a car which suits his driving style and he has raised his game in every respect, seemingly overnight.

Button is managing everything that is thrown at him from adverse weather to difficult tyre phases.

His victory in Australia's season opener - at that time just the second of his career - was down to out and out pace, but in each of the following Grands Prix there has been a critical phase where Button made all the difference.

In Malaysia, the Englishman made his pit in and out laps count and was fast and secure when the deluge, which eventually stopped the race, first arrived.

His next victory in Bahrain hinged on the incisive move he made on Lewis Hamilton when he re-took second place from McLaren's world champion at the start of the second lap.

Then in Barcelona, Button kept on pumping in the lap-times even when he had a heavier fuel load onboard than his team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who had set the early pace.

His latest victory in Monte Carlo relied on his ability to keep the struggling super-soft tyres in reasonably good condition during the first stint.

He built up a 16-second lead, which meant he could pace himself for the rest of the race.

I didn't see him make a single mistake - apart from parking the car in the wrong place at the end of the race, which meant he had to jog along the pit straight to the podium in a partial lap of honour.

Barrichello, in the other Brawn, is increasingly his chief rival but at crucial moments it's just not coming together for him. It must feel like his years of fighting former team-mate Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

With five wins in six races and 11 to go, the 2009 world championship is surely well within Button's grasp.

The car seems to have almost bulletproof reliability and Button is driving with such supreme confidence.


Jenson Button seems to be at home at the front. Unfazed, pulling out the flying laps when needed, and remaining scarily consistent. The boy's quick.


I am really impressed with his attitude. His approach is just to do his best in every practice session, through each part of qualifying and then in the race itself and see how far it gets him. That way he doesn't play the percentage game, as risky as that is especially in Monaco.

I haven't seen any suggestions that the tension is rising.

There is nothing to be gained from Button putting pressure on himself by starting to think 'the championship is mine to lose now.'

Lose is such a negative word - he wants to be living and breathing winning, he doesn't want to even think about losing.

Button needs to continue to look after himself both physically and mentally.

I joined the many who have sponsored him for the London Triathlon that he is competing in this summer and the message I wrote was; "be careful, especially with your right foot".

What makes his championship hopes easier is that no other driver or team are consistently fast so far.

The teams that are coming at him are different each race; it was Toyota in Bahrain, Red Bull in Barcelona and Ferrari in Monaco.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel is 2009's only other race-winner but he fell off the track in Monaco to drop further behind.

The fairytale story of Ross Brawn rescuing the remnants of the Honda team and Button's revival has captivated F1 followers - and beyond - this season.

But it is beginning to dawn on more than a few people, including Bernie Ecclestone and Geri Halliwell on my grid walk yesterday, that Button's dazzling dominance means the world championship fight could be over rather too soon.

Funny how quickly we get bored, although the Brawn-Button combo don't care at all about that.

[natef1]

Button is certainly more complete than Hamilton in that Hamilton often wilts under pressure whilst Button has not done so far this year.

I hate for this to become another Hamilton thread but I feel compelled to say something.

Hamilton arrived in 2007 in a great car, having had a great season in GP2. He lost the championship in the end by 1 point and was competing all year long for dominancy of the McLaren team that had not won a WDC or WCC in 8 and 9 years, from a 2x WDC in Alonso.

The next year all the pressure was on him to complete the job, which he did, eventually. Yes, he did wilt under pressure.

But I do not think Button has ever had that pressure in his F1 career. Especially in his current position. With the exception of China and the beginning of Bahrain, Button really hasn't been under any pressure except to perhaps bring the car home.

Until we see the Ferraris and Red Bull's hot on the heels of Button I think it's slightly unfair to compare the two.

where can I get Anthony Davidson's commentary?

If you are in the UK you can watch FP1 on Friday and on Saturday's FP3 he commentates, on the red button, the internet, or on DAB 5 live sports extra. Supposedly, you can watch Qualifying and the race with his commentary through the red button, although in my experience the BBC seem to have more important things to cover in recent races, like horse riding and um, sports news. So you may have to switch the TV down and use a radio

[gridwalker]

where can I get Anthony Davidson's commentary?

Only on Fridays, I guess.

Actually, you can get him for the race too : If you have a digibox (even a freeview box will do) just press red and go to the interactive race coverage. You can then select the Radio 5 commentary with Anthony Davidson, or the Children's BBC commentary (if you are so inclined) ...

[natef1]

where can I get Anthony Davidson's commentary?

Only on Fridays, I guess.

Actually, you can get him for the race too : If you have a dibox (even a freeview box will do) just press red and go to the interactive race coverage. You can then select the Radio 5 commentary with Anthony Davidson, or the Children's BBC commentary (if you are so inclined) ...

Hasn't worked for Bahrain, Spain, or Monaco on Freeview, though.

[Richard]

Hasn't worked for Bahrain, Spain, or Monaco on Freeview, though.

Sounds like you've got a weak signal. The "red button" is actually a switch to channel 301 or 302. It does mean you can get much better radio 5 commentry on all BBC sports.

Have a look to see if your TV/box is finding channel 301 or 302. You might need to get it to do a rescan for channels. You might need to upgrade your aerial, or putting a booster in the attic. A booster is good if you have lots of rooms off one aerial, or if you can get more channels in one room compared to another.

By the way, you can record the practice sessions by recording channel 301/302. Some receivers show this in the TV guide (my Sony TV does) but other don't (my BT Vision box shows no prog info). So I have to look up the details on the TV then manually set the BT box to record the correct time and channel.

[Richard]

Yes, Button is & has the most complete package at the moment. Remember this is a team sport up to the start line, then an individual sport on the track. He has the best car and a great team that collectivly gets the set up correct (ie Barichello's contribution).

- He can get the car faster around the track than his team mate or any other driver on the grid.
- He makes least mistakes (none?)
- He makes decisive moves that stick
- He makes his tyres last (partly the car, but remember that Barichello has dropped time because he is harder on his tryes)
- He out qualifies his team mate
- He can pull out a fast lap when needed and conserve at other times (no ice cream breaks for him!)
- His steering wheel barely seems to move (Others seem to be constantly spinnging theirs)
- He doesn't do a banzai crash into others when in line for podium finish
- He doesn't eat ice creams when he should working
- He doesn't threaten to blackmail his team when he's not winning
- He doesn't do figure skating impressions in the wet
- He doesn't end every sentance with "for sure"
- He took a pay cut AND pays for the costs of his personal team (dad & physio)
- He can run along the pit straight after a race (remember the Mansell hobble to the podium?)
- He has old fashioned boyish enthusiasm for racing
- He is a jolly nice chap

Unfortunately one of the above satements is false for sure.

[natef1]

Hasn't worked for Bahrain, Spain, or Monaco on Freeview, though.

Sounds like you've got a weak signal. The "red button" is actually a switch to channel 301 or 302. It does mean you can get much better radio 5 commentry on all BBC sports.

Have a look to see if your TV/box is finding channel 301 or 302. You might need to get it to do a rescan for channels. You might need to upgrade your aerial, or putting a booster in the attic. A booster is good if you have lots of rooms off one aerial, or if you can get more channels in one room compared to another.

By the way, you can record the practice sessions by recording channel 301/302. Some receivers show this in the TV guide (my Sony TV does) but other don't (my BT Vision box shows no prog info). So I have to look up the details on the TV then manually set the BT box to record the correct time and channel.

Yes, I knew this 301/302 business, I have both of them (as well as some other random ones like 304 or 305, which seems to be permanently blank..)

The problem I've had, though, is when I hit the red button this last Sunday, on the BBC menu it says something like ;

- Monaco GP
- News Index
- Entertainment

etc.

So I click 'Monaco GP', where does it direct me? Channel 301 or 302. But hold on, Jonathan Legard is still commentating! Where is the yellow arrow at the top to choose my commentary? It is nowhere to be found! Perhaps it is on the other 301/302, I wonder. So I switch. Nope, that's sports news loop that tells you 45 seconds of news, for 10 hours!

For the first few GP's everything worked fine, now there is so much changing it is impossible to know whether or not I need to bring my digital radio to the TV. For instance, I could hear 5 live on Monaco's Qualifying on TV, but not the race!

So what the BBC seem to be doing, to me, is putting BBC1 coverage on, for example, 301, so that if you're on, let's say, BBC2 or BBC News 24 (the ONLY 2 BBC channels that are broadcasting at the times), then you can be redirected to channel 301 which is in fact just a copy of BBC1! And then channel 302 is full of some other nonsense.

There seems to be no coherent structure with regards to the BBC's coverage.. Just like the press conferences get truncated or "full versions on the website", or the F1 forum gets shortened.

[gridwalker]

Hasn't worked for Bahrain, Spain, or Monaco on Freeview, though.

Sounds like you've got a weak signal. The "red button" is actually a switch to channel 301 or 302. It does mean you can get much better radio 5 commentry on all BBC sports.

Have a look to see if your TV/box is finding channel 301 or 302. You might need to get it to do a rescan for channels. You might need to upgrade your aerial, or putting a booster in the attic. A booster is good if you have lots of rooms off one aerial, or if you can get more channels in one room compared to another.

By the way, you can record the practice sessions by recording channel 301/302. Some receivers show this in the TV guide (my Sony TV does) but other don't (my BT Vision box shows no prog info). So I have to look up the details on the TV then manually set the BT box to record the correct time and channel.

Yes, I knew this 301/302 business, I have both of them (as well as some other random ones like 304 or 305, which seems to be permanently blank..)

The problem I've had, though, is when I hit the red button this last Sunday, on the BBC menu it says something like ;

- Monaco GP
- News Index
- Entertainment

etc.

So I click 'Monaco GP', where does it direct me? Channel 301 or 302. But hold on, Jonathan Legard is still commentating! Where is the yellow arrow at the top to choose my commentary? It is nowhere to be found! Perhaps it is on the other 301/302, I wonder. So I switch. Nope, that's sports news loop that tells you 45 seconds of news, for 10 hours!

For the first few GP's everything worked fine, now there is so much changing it is impossible to know whether or not I need to bring my digital radio to the TV. For instance, I could hear 5 live on Monaco's Qualifying on TV, but not the race!

So what the BBC seem to be doing, to me, is putting BBC1 coverage on, for example, 301, so that if you're on, let's say, BBC2 or BBC News 24 (the ONLY 2 BBC channels that are broadcasting at the times), then you can be redirected to channel 301 which is in fact just a copy of BBC1! And then channel 302 is full of some other nonsense.

There seems to be no coherent structure with regards to the BBC's coverage.. Just like the press conferences get truncated or "full versions on the website", or the F1 forum gets shortened.

It still beats having to put up with ad breaks

[natef1]

It still beats having to put up with ad breaks

Yes. But you know, ITV's coverage was still pretty good..

[jon-mullen]

Actually, you can get him for the race too : If you have a digibox (even a freeview box will do) just press red and go to the interactive race coverage. You can then select the Radio 5 commentary with Anthony Davidson, or the Children's BBC commentary (if you are so inclined) ...

Aw, you guys have children's commentary for the races? That's awesome!

[gridwalker]

Actually, you can get him for the race too : If you have a digibox (even a freeview box will do) just press red and go to the interactive race coverage. You can then select the Radio 5 commentary with Anthony Davidson, or the Children's BBC commentary (if you are so inclined) ...

Aw, you guys have children's commentary for the races? That's awesome!

I wonder how many children actually use the kid's commentary service ... I've been watching F1 since I was 7 years old and I always wanted to know more about the cars than we were told by the commentators.

I don't think I'd have continued watching the sport if the commentary was pitched at a lower level than it was already ... Despite this, the enthusiasm, passion and general excitement displayed by Murray Walker helped draw me into the show.

Martin Brundle always seems a little dry and out of touch to me, so a dumbed down version would drive me insane!

Even today, I find some aspects of the commentary quite infuriating : the way the DDDs were discussed (especially the way that Eddie Jordan constantly referred to the non-DDD teams as though they had no diffusers at all) is a prime example of the pundits stretching out a "technical" debate for the public without being able to adequately explain the differences in design philosophies.

Mass broadcasting often requires the program makers to assume an approach aimed at the lowest common denominator, to attract the largest possible demographic, but digital channels (if properly utilised) can change all of that.

Personally, I think that we should pitch the BBC for a red-button technical commentary : they have 3 already (5-Live, Dumb & Dumber) so why can't they have a commentary which assumes that the viewer is of above average intelligence? Even as a child, I'd have found it fascinating.

I'm sure it would make processional races more interesting & could help educate the casual fan beyond the bland generalities that passes for commentary at the moment.

Just my tuppence worth.

P.S.
To remain on-topic : Martin Brundle ... Boo, hiss ...