Head To Head Jenson Button vs Lewis Hamilton

[teabagyokel]

sushifiesta - he won a race.

 

[Brogan]

Hamilton still hasn't won a race and is slipping away from the lead.

He must wonder if his best chance of winning a race has passed him by, now that the other cars look to be slightly ahead of the McLaren.

 

[sushifiesta]

Yes, obviously, but if we're talking about driver attributes - speed, consistency etc. etc. Lewis comes out on top in all respects so far this year I think it's fair to say.

 

[FB]

Interesting interview with Martin Whitmarsh before the race who complemented Hamilton on maturing as a racing driver this year, especially after Spain. Not to open a can of worms but he then went on to say how Jenson has always had that maturity....

Please don't shoot the messenger!

 

[Quintessentially]

Jenson's recent poor performances are bound to set the alarm bells ringing at McLaren and their sponsors, especially as Hamilton is yet to agree a new contract. No surprises this has coincided with MW suddenly waxing lyrical about Hamilton and recent drip feeds to the press about handing him a new long term lucrative contract. Hamilton is clearly punching above his weight in that car and they've no doubt lost the small performance advantage they had during the early part of the season.

 

[downforce]

Hamilton still hasn't won a race and is slipping away from the lead.

He must wonder if his best chance of winning a race has passed him by, now that the other cars look to be slightly ahead of the McLaren.

I don't think so, he's slipping from the lead because of McLarens mistakes not because of the car losing pace imo.

Due to the nature of Monaco he was stuck with 5th, but everyuone being bunched up behind Webber must mean they were faster than him and would have passed on a more normal circuit.

 

[Brogan]

]ut he then went on to say how Jenson has always had that maturity....

I don't recall that being said about Button when he was in his "playboy" phase.

 

[FB]

Indeed not, maybe MW didn't know Jenson back then?

 

[Wombcat]

Hamilton still hasn't won a race and is slipping away from the lead.

He must wonder if his best chance of winning a race has passed him by, now that the other cars look to be slightly ahead of the McLaren.

Canada is coming up. Hamilton is always very strong there.

 

[The Pits]

Button has had 4 poor races now this season, and does not really seem to be getting a handle on what the issues are. I do not believe for a second that Jenson is naturally this much slower than Lewis, however, his achilles heel does seem to be coming to the fore more than I would like to see.

That said, I think it is fairly evident that McLaren are slipping somewhat, not just through team errors. Also, the drop off in pace in the race is a cause for concern, and something that they have traditionally been strong at. Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari both seem to be getting on top of their issues in this regard, not sure about Renault.

One thing is for certain, McLaren and Button inparticular need to get on top of the issues and start closing the gap in front, or they are going to be in the mire, with all the other teams so close.

 

[Fenderman]

McLaren clearly have some issues with the car. We know that Jenson is no slouch. We also know that the the team and Lewis were in a conservative mode today as he looked after his tyres - probably more than necessary. Whitmarsh, interviewed before the race, said that Lewis had learnt that he can't win on the first corner and implied that they would be looking to preserve his position in third. His uncomfortable smile when he added that "of course if an opportunity presents itself" Lewis would have a go betrayed his hope that one wouldn't.

Until McLaren get over this nervousness and learn that there are times when their drivers need to be let off the leash they will continue to miss opportunities. Meanwhile, in the Jenson vs Lewis situation it will be Jenson who comes off worse because his "natural" style is the smooth one. I suspect that it is easier to calm an aggressive style than it is to consistently change to an inherently unnatural aggressive style.

For those reasons I think Lewis has the edge over Jenson this season because his innate aggressive style is paying off in qualifying and maybe masking deficiencies in the car which, I suspect, cause Jenson more problems.

 

[snowy]

I am pretty sure the car is not deficient, there is a component missing from Lewis and the McLaren team are "strategically challenged". Fernando was all over Lewis at the start of the race and fell back two seconds to conserve tyres. At that point Lewis should have fallen back from Rosberg to conserve his, the team seeing that he wasn't should have advised him to. As soon as the team saw Lewis had worn his tyres out they should have pitted him, they squandered 3 seconds to Nico and a gap of 4 to Fernando prior to the 1st stop! Those four laps where it was painfully obvious that Lewis had failed to conserve his tyres were hideously painful to watch and gave me a sore throat.

Lewis's strength and the cars strength is that it heats the tyres, subjugating both driver and cars natural inclinations in vein attempts to conserve tyres is insane. Lewis should assert himself and play to his strengths, whimsical tyre conservation not only goes against every fibre of his being but that of the car also.

 

[downforce]

snowy You appear to be contradicting yourself, you say he should have fallen back by 2 seconds to look after the tyres.

Then you say trying to do so would have been in vain.

 

[snowy]

It sounds like that but it isn't. Had Lewis fallen back of his own volition he may have been able to conserve some tyre life. But he did not fall back by his own volition, he wore out his tyres driving in the wake of the Mercedes. His engineer should have advised him that a bigger gap might help his efforts to conserve his tyres. It was blatantly obvious that was what Fernando was doing.

 

[Quintessentially]

Hamilton had a terrible inlap and his time was shocking but I guess this was testament to Alonso’s speed at the time because he was almost 2seconds quicker than Webber too. It also seems Hamilton wasn’t told Vettle was a danger until it was too late.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

However, it is more disingenuous to say that Button has "royally messed up" with tyres when he has a win and a second this year.

He mentioned that Hamilton was improving; that's what we've seen isn't it? You would be a fool, Cookinflatsix, to suggest that Button wasn't reknowned for tyre usage; thats something that goes back years.

It seems that being good with not wearing tyres out and being good with tyres are different things as Jenson seems to be messing up even more due to inability to switch tyres on

 

[teabagyokel]

He's been very poor in the last three races.

 

[Il_leone]

Mclaren I 'll say have not maximised their performance in the first 3 races when they were the quickest or equal quickest car

In Melbourne - that was bad luck when the SC came out and meant Vettel got a lucky jump

In Malaysia - Button made a mistake crashing impatiently and Hamilton did not have the speed in damp conditions

In China - they messed on tyre strategy for Hamilton and a bungled pit stop for Button cost him possibly a win

In Bahrain - the tyre problems this time hurt Hamilton

In Spain - not meeting the fuel spec was costly and probably cost Hamilton the win. I am not sure what happened with Button's set up from fastest in practice to no pace

In MOnaco - the car clearly does not have the mechanical grip of the others in a street circuit like Monaco

Mclaren should be 1 and 2 or maybe at least one driver winning

It seems that since coming back to Europe the revised nose on the MClaren has not helped at all. It seems like the circuits where they dominated were ones where top end power is more crucial

 

[riskitall]

in bahrain they messed up hamiltons pitstop again which allowed jenson to get ahead of him.something we have seen so many times before,lewis didnt really have tyre problems.

then theres the 5 place grid pen that cost lewis points,and the terrible pitstops.but the thing that cost him the most points was the underfuelling penalty.he should be leading the championship right now by atleast 8 points,that underfuelling penalty alone has made sure thats not the case.
jenson wouldnt be leading the championship,he hasnt been good enough,to slow in quali and the races,especially in spain.
plus he keeps crashing into other drivers.
lewis is doing a much better job,and has a much better chance of winning the championship this season.
im sorry,but lewis at his best v jenson at his best,lewis wins everytime.
ppl have been fooled by what happened last season.the likes of alonso etc still know whats up tho.

 

[Josh]

I may be forgetting something here, but isn't Karthikeyan the only driver Button crashed into so far this season?