Jenson Button

Arguably the best ever driver in mixed conditions, all his wins at Mclaren have come in those conditions. His last race win in the dry came at the 2009 Turkish GP.

Button is known for his smooth driving style and is normally seen in must races doing one less stop than his rivals for tyres.

Buttons also know to be a bit of a practical joker and will take part in anything fun.

Since his debut in 2000 Button has won the majority of hearts in this country. But what is your favourite JB win?

Mine has to be Hungaroring 2006, in argubly a midfield team and he won the race in those mixed conditions to take his first win. I can remember James Allen been in tears almost and that was the first race Anthony Davidson ever commentated on.

 

[Brogan]

David Croft mentioned it at the previous race too.

 

[The Pits]

I think all drivers have tags and labels, some of which are justified and some not.


Is Jenson any more of a moaner than others? Possibly, maybe his sensitivity to the car means he is not more of a moaner, but he simply has more to moan about!

Lewis and tyres? kobayashi and crashing? Kimi and ice creams?

One thing is for certain, justified or not, the tags are tough to shake.

 

[Porceliamone]

It is possible to change perceptions though. Massa used to be a crash king in general. He's lost that label now though and is simply known for being rubbish in the wet. Actually, just rubbish. Oooooh hark at me!

 

[Mephistopheles]

It seems to me that the reason some people who draw the conclusion that Jenson constantly complains, do so because; Of all the car to pit radio broadcasts we get to hear 70% of them are Jenson's, and basically those special people who never moan about anything just don't like him so they have a dig at every little thing he says because they just can't help themselves.

But the case in point (I think) is where the team had put some dummy upgrades on Jenson's car knowing it was going to restrict the drivers visibility and so needed to know by exactly how much. And all that Jenson was doing was reporting by how much it did so, so obviously he was moaning, apparently...

And sportsman I know your comments were in jest but there is a massive difference between what Jenson does and what Mansell did. Jenson gives feed back to the team (As does every other driver who knows what he is doing we just don't get to hear it.) whereas Nigel just used to moan on and on, even after he had won a race he was never happy..

It is all very well taking a sound bite and drawing a conclusion from it, but generally it is better to see the whole picture before commenting lest you look like a complete berk, not talking about you there sportsman.

 

[Hamberg]

I've been saying for a good few years now that Jenson is a moaner. Maybe it's his tone, a bit whiney and although there are exceptions I don't think he takes much personal responsibility when things go wrong. Not nearly as sulky as Vettel though.

I've nothing much to say about his driving this year - he's the princess and the pea of F1 and where everybody needs to adapt to new rules/styles/tyres/setups he struggles. I'd like to see a bit more battling through the pack rather than what appears to be letting the car get the better of him. Vettel isn't taking to the blown diffuser ban too well but I think he's doing a much better job at working with what he's got than Button. Boy needs to learn to adapt quickly, the speed is obviously in the car.

 

[Brogan]

Button says he is "confused and very lost" after his "worst race for many, many years".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18390600

 

[Josh]

Judging by his recent comments he's somewhere in the same place as Hamilton was last year... Only his results are worse.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

It's his smooth style that is way too narrow and one dimensional for this regime, he simply needs to understand what is required from the tyres and change his style to adapt. Every other driver has, and he is a talented driver

I think Lewis has destroyed him mentally with his performances this year, when you know that your teammate can do things in the car thAt you cannot get near it must hit your confidence

Perhaps last season created too much expectation and pressure on Jenson

 

[ExtremeNinja]

His smooth style doesn't put enough energy into the tyres and he doesn't know any other way to drive. The tyres work differently at each track this year and it is the adaptable drivers that are getting the most cosistantly good results.

 

[Josh]

Cook when it was suggested last year that it was Jenson who affected Lewis it was shot down as rubbish - by you as well - yet now you claim that Lewis' performance has affected Jenson?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

There were even undertones I detected in his post race interview on Sky of suspicions of some kind of intra-team discrepancy. Don't shoot me down, I may have imagined this.

 

[FB]

If we could keep the JB versus LH stuff here it would be much appreciated.

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/jenson-button-vs-lewis-hamilton.4734/page-66#post-134592

 

[Josh]

I just watched this (praise the mighty Youtube) and are you talking about the beginning when he was praising the team? 'Cause if so I can see where you're coming from.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Thank you FB this is not the thread to knock Jenson and it is ungracious of people to come here just to take cheap shots and in their mind score points.

As you say there is a thread for that kind of posting although it is not one I participate in.

All drivers go through bad spells so lets try not to kick them when they are down eh, it is one of the least pleasant of all the human characteristics, and there is no need for it...

 

[The Artist.....]

it does seem incredible that Button is struggling so much, and has been since Spain... It does point to the possibility of something being awry with the car - not least because at the start of the season JB was right with Hamilton, and was faster during the Melbourne race...I suppose some of the deficit in Canada could be put down to the fact that Button had virtually no running on Friday... However, it is mystifying to see Button dropping from race winner in Melbourne to tail-end charlie in Canada!

 

[riskitall]

but lewis was low on confidence and was just trying to finish the race and get some good points.he took 0 risks,plus he treated the tyres like last seasons,i.e he drove too slow thinking he had to do that to make tyres last.
the first race really isnt a race you should judge drivers on too much,because they are just testing the water.
as the seasons gone on lewis has grown in confidence,and jenson has become anxious hence the crashes.

 

[FB]

Crashes, plural riskitall? I though the only race where he has retired due to an accident was Monaco? I suppose he hit the HRT in Malaysia but all drivers make mistakes. Some on here seem to want to damn the feller and suggest it's psychological. Me, I think the car suits Hamilton's style hence why Button isn't in the game at the moment. Losing an entire session in Canada certainly didn't help him much either.

 

[Porceliamone]

After the GP yesterday Martin Whitmarsh or Sam Michael (exactly which one escapes me now) stated that Button needs a car that has a balanced and substantial rear downforce to extract the most from it and that Hamilton has the ability to make the more of a car that doesn't have those firm characteristics. To me that suggests two things - one, that Hamilton can wring the neck of an underperforming car more effectively than Button and two, that the current McLaren car exhibits the rear end dynamics more suited to Hamilton's driving style. Plus, didn't Button have different rear suspension yesterday for some reason?

 

[The Pits]

Porceliamone I do not think that is a secret.

Jenson won in oz, had an accident in Malaysia, came second in China, then Bahrain was poor for both mclaren drivers, but JB retired.

Then, following the changes employed after the mugello test, all of a sudden, Lewis is way ahead. Could it be that something introduced such as the high nose has brought the car away from Jenson and towards Lewis? Jenson said that he does not believe he has any more issues with the tyres than anyone else, so maybe other angles should be explored.

 

[Mephistopheles]

There is obviously something in the car that Jenson can't get to grips with a driver doesn't forget how to be quick and win races all of a sudden I can accept this, what I don't accept is that Jenson is rattled by Lewis he hasn't been for the last two years so why should he be now?

Just remember that his time last year Jenson had just driven a race that is widely considered to be one of the best drives in the history of the sport. If not the best it was certainly well within the top ten....

Anyway I'm not gong to give up on him, I stuck with him through those horrible Honda earth car years and I'll stick with him now, well not as far as my FF1 team is concerned he's a goner there but business is business you know what I mean..