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.

 

[Hamberg]

I don't know what lap exactly Bill Boddy I caught the dialogue from the McLaren homepage feed. Pit wall said "box this lap", Jenson said, "but it's stopped raining", they said "okay stay out". I have no idea what happened in the Hulkenberg situation.

 

[jez101]

I have what appears to be a puzzling contradiction: we all know Jenson can be quite picky with his setup and needs his car a certain way. I think most of us will accept that when he has the car how he likes it, he can be very, very quick but he is not able to drive around problems as well as some of the others.

That would suggest that he is inflexible, perhaps not as good at adapting as the others to sub optimal conditions?

And yet, at we have seen on numerous occasions, JB is one of the best in damp / partially wet conditions when conditions are sub optimal and adaptability and flexibility skills are at a premium.

How do we reconcile this? JB needs his car just so, but when the conditions are unpredictable, he is among the very best. Eh?

 

[pirateplunder]

^ In all spots weather is the great equaliser. Even accrington stanley could be manchester united if the weather was bad enough!

Truthfully though, my perception is that Jenson does well at keeping the car on track and facing the right way with a bit of rain which means he seems happier to keep out on dry tires for slightly longer. In those conditions its more about grip and feel (probably related to being easy on tires) than raw speed.

Added to that he's then been extremely fortunate on a couple of occasions relatively recently when just after everyone else changes to inters the weather changes in his favour. A downpour on Sunday and he could have looked extremely stupid for staying out longer. But irrespective, his happiness/ability to stay out gives him those opportunities to be lucky.

 

[jez101]

Lets take Canada 2011 vs Canada 2012. In the race he won, he could drive faster than anyone else even though there was a shortage of grip (from the wet track). This year, he was nowhere and completely lost because of the shortage of grip (from the tyres).

Same track, same guy, same lack of grip... Completely different result.

 

[racecub]

Canada 2011 two of his biggest rivals were out by his hands. He may not have been fastest. But I get your point, it is oddly inconsistent.

 

[The Artist.....]

Unless of course his lack of grip in 2012 was something that affected his car more than others- in other words a setup issue which meant that he wasn't generating as much grip as the other cars...

As such, comparisons between 2011 and 2012 may not be valid- 2011 was a more equal playing field- everyone was giving low grip, 2012 could be argued that some people were likely to have more grip than others.

 

[Viscount]

jez101 I was wondering the same thing about JB last night, but with every potential theory I came up with I think it's something that can only be answered in the telemetry. All I could really come up with is that in the dry, due to his more sensitive feel for the car he may need the right balance to get the most out of the car, but in the wet which many consider a car equaliser, that extra sensitive feel might mean he's able to evaluate the grip slightly better than most. That's 4 season's in a row now where with a decent car he's been able to win at least one of the very few races per season in changeable conditions so there must be a greater reason than simple luck.

As for Canada 2012, nothing can make up for going with the wrong setup as per his teammate in Spa.

 

[teabagyokel]

Of his 15 wins, 7 of them have come in wet/changeable races. I dunno, is he smooth enough to just stay on that dry line and not need to throw it around?

However, both McLarens were slower than Hulkenburg in the semi-wet anyway!

 

[Bill Boddy]

Man years ago my brother used to ride in motorbike trials. We used to go to see him, it was a matter of choosing a section, watch for a while, then go on to another section and so on.

I remember there being a new section in one event. It was call "Long Ashes Steps", being a narrow, uphill track literally up slabs of limestone. There were two top riders taking part that day. Geoff Broadbent, who was a specialist at finding the only ridable line in a tricky section and Jeff Smith, a rider who just forced his bike through, something of an exaggeration but you know what I mean.

Geoff Broadbent spent several minutes looking at the section, walking up and down by the side of it. He walked away, shaking his head. When he came to ride it he scored maximum penalty points.

Jeff Smith had a quick look from the bottom, got on his bike and by the process of lifting his front wheel, transferring his weight etc he went up with no penalty points.

On other stages Broadbent's method worked well, with fine throttle control and touch he won many trials.

To me, Button is the Broadbent.

Edit due to brain fade, thanks to ExtremeNinja for pointing it out gently

 

[ExtremeNinja]

They both became Broadbents about half way through your post.

 

[Hamberg]

Jeff or Geoff

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

!

 

[Bill Boddy]

From the timing the track became trickier. That does not mean that it had not stopped raining.

 

[Hamberg]

Just going by what Jenson said. If he got that wrong then he was extremely lucky the call he made worked out as he based it on his own misjudgement!

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Guys - I'm getting fed up of all the stick Jenson Button is getting at the moment. Yeah Jenson might not be as good as say Alonso, Hamilton or even Vettel. But he's miles ahead in talent than the chasing pack behind him, Jenson too has had his fair share of bad luck when it comes to reliability this year. In Monza he was a certain to finish 2nd or 3rd and yet the car broke on him.

But what i'm trying to get at here is if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all!

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maybe his experience told him that there could be water running off the slopes onto the track for a short while but after that conditions would improve. I don't know what he thought, but he handled it and came out on top.

 

[RickD]

racecub - Why is it that you feel you need to come onto a drivers thread that isn't your favourite driver by a long way and put them down? Do you feel that threatened by Jenson? If so, I really don't see why as your favourite driver is so much faster over one lap.

Jenson seems to have a feel for the grip levels in changable conditions that thiose who slide the bacjkend out a bit more do not seem to have. It would seem from watching him in many different situations he doesn't like oversteer and can not get the car doing what he wants it to do if oversteer is inherent to the car. This would explain why he is so good in the damp when he has a car he likes the feel of, where oversteer is likely to send you off into the wall/grass/bloody miles of tarmac runoff, but not so good when it is dry and the car has too much oversteer (Canada 2012, not China like someone said earlier), where he ends up destroying his tyres.

 

[Brogan]

But what i'm trying to get at here is if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all!

That's really not for you to decide.

This is a driver thread and all opinions are valid, positive or otherwise.

No more moderation by proxy please, leave it to the moderators. That goes for everyone.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Okay Brogan.

 

[racecub]

@Rick D I can go on any driver third and give my opinion on the driver. I wasn't putting him down, I was putting my point of view on his 'mixed condition skills'. No I don't feel one bit threatened by him.