do you think button made a mistake to go to mclaren?

[bergzy]

paycheck aside. i dont know what button is getting paid for racing with mclaren...

what is your opinion with him being team mate to lewis?

from the 'truthful' comments heikki said in a finnish paper regarding lewis getting extraordinary preferential treatment and first crack at new parts etc. do you think it was buttons best interest as a driver (not money) do go with mclaren?

looking at mclarens past record of even dissing a current wdc (fernie) that was on their team to heavily favor the rookie, i cant wait to see what lewis & mclaren will do in 2010 to jenson!

[Rob W]

Well covered already.

Here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7638

And here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7639

[lebesset]

world champion wasn't as fast as the rookie , that was his problem

[deus1066]

As mentioned on the links above, the car shouldn't be a deciding factor:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motors ... utton.html

[ISLAMATRON]

they paid Alonso 40 million to be a 2nd seat driver... not bad.

[axle]

paycheck aside. i dont know what button is getting paid for racing with mclaren...

what is your opinion with him being team mate to lewis?

from the 'truthful' comments heikki said in a finnish paper regarding lewis getting extraordinary preferential treatment and first crack at new parts etc. do you think it was buttons best interest as a driver (not money) do go with mclaren?

looking at mclarens past record of even dissing a current wdc (fernie) that was on their team to heavily favor the rookie, i cant wait to see what lewis & mclaren will do in 2010 to jenson!

I would bet that Heikki got equal equipment at the start of the year...but threw it off the track badly to ruin things for himself.

Button's decision is a fine one...he has 3 YEARS to bed in and get it right. He doesn't HAVE to beat Lewis in year 1.

[lebesset]

very good decision from jenson , as soon as he found out they were being taken over by mercedes he knew the writing was on the wall

McL have a history of equal treatment for both drivers , trouble with alonso was he expecting that he would get preference over his team mate , and had a hissy fit or two when he wasn't given it !
if he had really been faster than hamilton then hamilton would have been put out to a lesser team for a year or two while alonso was there [ just like alonso was as a rookie ]...but he clearly wasn't as good as hamilton so McL got rid of him !

anyone who thinks that ron dennis would have kept the slower driver is in need of a reality injection

[Raptor22]

Big mistake for Button.

He is nowhere near as consistent as Lewis and frankly nowhere near as talented.

He will be shown up for the over paid Journeyman that he is.

[Mystery Steve]

He is nowhere near as consistent as Lewis...

That does explain why he only finished out of the points once last year vs. nine times for Lewis...

Jenson showed this past year that he can do well when he actually gets a good car. More than likely, McLaren will show up with a decent car next year and he'll do fine. Is he going to run away with it? Not likely. Will he be in the picture and maybe even beat Lewis? I wouldn't be shocked.

[Rob W]

McL have a history of equal treatment for both drivers , trouble with alonso was he expecting...

No they don't. They have a history of saying they do.

You only have to look back to the Hakinnen/Coulthard era to see obvious team preference there on occasion. There may have been some in the Hamilton/Alonso year - especially after the Hungary incident. And why not? Even if it amounts to less discussion with engineers, less dialog on strategy etc - it counts as different treatment (with definite on-track effects).

Likewise, you can't really believe teams when they say they'll support both drivers fully until near the end when only one has any chance of winning the championship... It's likely they decided that (based on basic probability) many races earlier.

In-short, most of what teams say publicly need to be taken with a grain of salt.

[ISLAMATRON]

Prost was an asshole
Coulthard didnt deserve equal treatment(but still mostly got it until it no longer was in the best interest of the team)
Alonso was an overated asshole...actually still is.

If any team on the grid can claim equal treatment it would be McLaren, but it is difficult to treat assholes equally, even when it is your own children, so even more difficult with race car drivers.

[Rob W]

Prost was an asshole
Coulthard didnt deserve equal treatment(but still mostly got it until it no longer was in the best interest of the team)...

If any team on the grid can claim equal treatment it would be McLaren, but it is difficult to treat assholes equally...

Exactly, the reasoning is besides the point. Sometimes you just favour one over the other and it can be obvious, or in more subtle ways which still have some effect on a driver's performance.

[ISLAMATRON]

If they served fish and chips in the McLaren cafeteria instead of whatever spainards eat(I dont know... tappas maybe?) does that signal favourtism? Sometimes you just gotta man up and do your job... especially when you are getting paid $40million to do so.

They didnt favor Hamilton, Alonso just put himself in bad favour with the team. The FIA(which was clearly gunning for Ron Dennis' head) even went as far as putting a spanish delegate(Juan Pablo Carlos de La something or other) inside the Mclaren team and he did not report any discrepancies.

We've heard the excuses from all the drivers... even from Lewis himself in Monaco '07, but those may have had some actual truth to them.

McLaren would have been extremely stupid to piss off a 2XWDC which they just signed to an Ironclad 3 year contract at $40 mil per. But then again they would have been even more stupid to choose Alonso over Hamilton.


Oh but this is supposed to be about Button, hell yeah he made a mistake, he could never beat Hamilton head to head and the MercGP car may very well be better than the MP4/25. He might have could beat a young Rosberg, but not a young Hamilton.

Button should have just signed with BGP for whatever they offered... who cares if he had to pay for his own dry cleaning, he could have just auctioned the old race suit on EBAY(with the funk still in it) and would have made a huge profit even after buying a new one... seriously who manages these idiots? After all the money he made driving garbage HONDA cars around slower than Rubens he is complaining about a dry cleaning bill? WTW?

[TRICKLE69]

I think that if he gives Hamilton a run for his money (I think he will) that he has made the right decision. He got alot of crap this year and I think he wants to show that he is a deserving champ and not just a fluke. We will see....

[ringo]

Not a big button fan, but i support his move, no sense in limiting himself.
I don't think he will give Hamilton a run for his money, though i would like to see it happen.
I always use 2007 as my gauge, if Button is equal to Alonso on talent and technical skill, then yeah , he may stand a slight chance.
But i think we are in for a rude awakening of how extra terrestrially fast this hamilton kid really is.
If we put things into perspective Hamilton in the MP4 24 had 4 poles and 2 wins (possible 3 wins) with half a season.
Vettel in the fastest car on the grid had 4 wins, which could have been only 3 (hamilton's brake failure).
Now if this was the outcome (pardon the coulda woulda shoulda scenario), 3wins and 4 poles in a RB5 and another guy doing the same thing in the sardine tin MP4 24. Then we start to see what level of driver Button is dealing with here.

This guy aint your run of the mill rising star quick driver. There is reason to believe Hamilton may be fastest driver on the grid, by a long shot. I hope Button can turn up the heat, it's gonna be a long 2010.