A word on Jenson

[JimClarkFan]

Long time F1 fan + lurker, first time posting.

I've been a fan of Jenson for a while, I zoned out of F1 in the Schumacher years I'm afraid and only came back to it late 06. Always been a fan of Button, not because of his driving style, which is nice to watch, but because he seems a nice guy.

I want to point out three of the traits of Jenson overlooked by most on these boards.

1 - Speed
The first point is that Jenson is a far faster driver than most give him credit. Murray walker once said of Jenson that if he had a perfectly balanced car he would be one of the fastest drivers on the grid - something I agree with. The problem with Jenson, like Brundle and many others have said before, is that he can only be very fast in cars where he can point it where he wants it to go and have the confidence that the car will follow. Unlike Lewis or Alonso he is less adaptable and doesn't have the ability to bully a bad car because he is a confidence driver, but put him in a good car and he is as good as anyone. Qualifying this year in Australia was interesting, because Jenson, like him or loath him wasn't a million miles away from Lewis. Unexpected was Jensons ability to pull away from Lewis during the race, this was the first time I have seen him go head to head with Lewis in a race and out pace him fair and square, testament to the fact that he has a car this year that he seems to be very comfortable in.


2 - Team/Car Development
When Jenson moved to Mclaren I was one of the few of the opinion that he would be much closer to Lewis than expected, and I was right in some respects but I was wrong in other ways because on his first season Lewis clearly had the upper hand.

The last 2.5 years with Mclaren have been interesting to watch because the impact of JB's arrival has been noticeable. Jenson is a completely different personality compared to Lewis, he is much more mature and his head is in the F1 team game more so than Lewis'. One thing that he has repeated in several interviews is a conversation he had with one of his former team principles (can't remember who), which was 'Jenson you have good pace, but you don't know how to build a team around you to create a fast car.' That seems to have stuck with him, because I have read him say it more than once. And that is exactly what he has been doing in Mclaren. He hangs around with his team a lot outside of the circuit, goes to the pub drinking with them amongst other things and generally gets on very well with them. He has got the Mclaren personnel on his side. His signing of a contract extension last year speak volumes and of the increasing reliance Mclaren has on him. It seems to me that Jenson has effectively taken the team from under Lewis, and geared development of the new car to fit his characteristics as a driver - which is a very well balanced car.

The natural ability of Lewis I believe actually hinders his ability to help Mclaren develop a new car which is why Mclaren increasingly relies on Jenson. Lewis can get in any car and extract the best from it because of his natural ability which is hard to translate back to engineers and which I feel may mask a bad car. However Button needs balance, and is very sensitive to a poorly balanced car and therefore seems better positioned than Lewis to direct car development.


3 - Intelligence
Now that Jenson has got the team on his side, and has a car under him which best suits his driving style, the out and out one lap speed between Hamilton and Jenson is going to be much lower. Jensons race craft is much better than Lewis', and Jenson has been vocal of his opinion that he is a better racer than Lewis ever since he joined Mclaren. Lewis has been going from one mistake to another, and instead of looking at his race craft, and the decisions he has been making in the past year of racing he has been looking instead to pointing the blame at a lack of 'bubble' rather than his own split second decisions in the drivers seat - I'm getting annoyed hearing this from Lewis along with the childish sulking he openly displays and I am sure his team are too. Jensons many years spent in cars that have been poor or not suited his particular driving style has mean that he has had to rely on his racing intelligence to bring him points and victories. Lewis if anything has relied too much on his own natural talent, and has underachieved because he has neglected how to win a race using strategy.

Well there you have it.

[TheRMVR]

Great first post. I agree with a lot of it.

I was one of those people back in 2009 who credited his championship to the car. And of course that Brawn was mighty at the beginning of the season. Jenson made some mistakes throughout of it but other than that it was a deserved championship. Although I still believe if a Hamilton or Alonso or even Vettel or Rosberg would've been in that car they might as well wouldve won it. But what 2009 did for Jenson was giving him confidence. Add two great early wins in 2010 and that gave him a great boost of confidence. He never really had confidence, especially not in that BAR and Honda. He is indeed a clever racer, patient and always nursing his tires.

But the most unique thing about him is how he has evolved. He started out as a big promise, he was young, good looking and made a ton of money. Naturally a playboy like lifestyle was born, with expensive Ferrari's a Bugatti, yachts and girls.
Now since he has won his championship and found his confidence in himself as a person he has evolved into a 'gentleman racer' of some kind.
He got rid of most of his cars and yachts and is as fit as anyone. He never ever has anything bad to say about his collegues and is just one of the nicest guys according to team members and drivers. Very very fair on the track and always the most clever guy.
I really like how he has evolved, it has reflected on his driving as well. I used to believe he was in the Webber, Massa group but now the Renaissance Button belongs in the Alonso, Hamilton group. Sure on raw pace he might be lacking but he makes up for that in wisdom.

He is somewhat like the 'old' British racers. Clark, Hill etc. And thats about the biggest compliment I could make.

[JimClarkFan]

Thanks TheRMVR.

Yes, the world championship gave him the self confidence but it has been the last two seasons at Mclaren that have turned things around for him. I didn't really know much of his past playboy lifestyle, other than he had one, so his U turn in that regard is very interesting.

Almost everyone was saying he won the 2009 championship because of the car, and he did in many respects but most of the recent champions, bar perhaps Alonso, won in the best car. As such it was thought that he was just in the right place at the right time.

When he went to Mclaren it was going to make or break his career because it was said that Hamilton would expose him. But over the last two years he has shut a lot of people up. Not only was his one lap pace better than most people expected, and is getting better as he moulds the team to produce a car to his liking enabling him to commit fully to throwing the car into his preferred lines... but he is relentless as Canada shown, and can rack up points consistently over the course of a season.

He is much better than people thought, or thought he could be, and in Red Bull he is apparently held in very high regard, in fact increasingly so in all of F1 - when you can get Flavio Briatore to admit he was wrong about Jenson being slow, you're doing something right.

And yes, he reminds me of one of the golden oldie racers as well regarding his driving style with a bit of Prost for good measure. Speaking of Golden Oldies I think the recent rule changes removing driver aids have helped Jenson because of the lines he drives and the way he applies the throttle; i.e. limiting traction control as of 2008, and a decrease in blown diffuser cornering aids this year.

[WhiteBlue]

McLaren have an incredibly well sorted car at the moment. It may be partly due to Button's input. I expect Red Bull to close the gap very quickly and that will force McLaren to step up the development pace and introduce new things to the car. Perhaps that will benefit Hamilton more than Button.

One point about the Australian race was the fuel miscalculation at McLaren. They had to save fuel almost all the race and Button is coping with such kind of complicating factors much better than Hamilton. Button has the experience and mental capacity like Schumacher to devote a big chunk of his brain capacity to strategic thinking in the race. This benefits his tactical decisions. In the end it is called race craft.

For McLaren it is great to have two champions with different strength and weaknesses but it also benefits Red Bull. Few people doubt that McLaren will be constructor champ at the end of the year, but they could well loose the WDC to Vettel by not having a team order policy. I do not believe that McLaren will put everything behind Button as Ferrari or Red Bull would probably do very soon.

[raymondu999]

Great first post mate. Having said that - I still credit most of his 09 title to his car. It was BECAUSE of that that he became closer to the top rank of drivers IMO. In 2009 I felt he was a bit of a super-Heidfeld or a super-Trulli.

[JimClarkFan]

@whiteblue
There may have been a fuelling issue, but at the same time Button had the fastest lap of the race and on both the start and restart he hammered a few blistering laps which was very Vetteless to get clear of the DRS zone. I think you could be right though, the rule of no team orders in Mclaren could hurt them over the season.

@raymondu999
I wouldn't have put him as a super Heidfield, but in my heart of hearts I would not have considered him as a top contender back then either. I see where you are coming from though but you have to remember he isn't the same driver today, and you can't judge his current form based on his past performances. It would be unfair to do that. The 2009 championship gave him the confidence within himself to perform like TheRMRV said.

[raymondu999]

@JimClarkeFan That's what I'm saying. He's elevated himself to top driver status in 2011 - partly because of his 2009 success. But his 2009 success in itself - I would still put down mostly due to the car.

[JimClarkFan]

A bit of good luck and some confidence can do amazing things to a person.

[ParanoiD]

I have admire him as a person before he was a champion.And being a champion made him even a better person. Really the opposite of his current team-mate.

[raymondu999]

I actually was a fan of Jenson in 2000-2001. I thought he had potential - but when he sort of fizzled out I wrote him off as a journeyman. I remember he took Schumacher around the outside (possibly at the start?) at his first grand prix. That had me in absolute awe. I wasn't a fan of his playboy lifestyle either. I remember him telling the press humbly how he would stay the same person - and that F1 will not change him to an arrogant person - then several weeks later buys a Monaco pad - a yacht - a Ferrari - and dumps his girlfriend of some seven years for a model. I don't remember who it was right now.

In a weird sort of way I think some are still unconvinced of him - and cites Hamilton's distractions as the reason why - in a way saying that Button can only beat a distracted Hamilton; and not an on-form Hamilton. Maybe he'll want to prove himself against say... Vettel or Alonso next. Who knows? I'd love to see that

I think he'd get along with Vettel royally. With Alonso... both are smart cookies - and I think it'd be a case of smiling in front but playing the political game of wrestling the team's favoritism to their direction, for each driver

[Dann]

His current team mate looked very dejected & sombre on the podium. LH should learn to hide disappointment infront of the camera. He looked very down when beaten by his team mate and continued to show it during post-race interview. Afterall, it's only the first race.
JB didn't behave like that when he was beaten by him.

[raymondu999]

I don't really mind about that to be honest. They're competing. Of course they all want the best result. I'd be disappointed if I'd had his result from pole.

[zoro_f1]

nice first post JimClarkeFan. agree

[JimClarkFan]

I think he would get on with Vettel extremely well too and have problems with Alonso too, I can't see him being paired with either in the near future though.

I also don't mind a team mate being upset by coming behind his team mate. But I don't like the way Hamilton does it, I much prefer the Webber approach where he will just spit it out and be truthful with himself rather than the sulking Hamilton does and then his attempts to blame something else.

I have to say, the last year or so has really brought my own opinion of Hamilton down. I'm fed up hearing him moaning about of his off the track problems being the cause for his on the tracks woes.

[Mysticf1]

Alonso divorced his wife and we barely heard a thing about it.

Hamilton has a rough patch with his pussycat dole and it destroys his season.

In Australia we have a saying "eat some concrete and harden the **** up"