Comments on: Why Button would stay with Brawn

By: Tom D'Roza

Tom D'Roza — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:29:05 +0000

James: Did you get chance to catch Martin’s gridwalk laast weekend? He bumped into Jacques Villeneuve and asked whether Jacques fancied jumping back into an F1 car given the new regulations (slicks, lack of driver aids etc). I can’t remember the exact quote but basically Jacques said he’d love to, and hinted that he might even be talking to a few people about a possible return. My initial thoughts were that he might be referring to Williams because I think they parted on good terms(?) and Patrick Head has been making noises recently about needing experienced drivers. My other thought was about Renault: either as a temporary replacement for Piquet, or as a backup in case Alsonso leaves at the end of the year – didn’t they put Jacques in the car for the last couple of races a few years ago?

Your article here made me wonder about a possible drive at Brawn though. After a shaky start Jacques and Jenson seemed to get on well. His former engineer Craig Pollock is still there. He knows many of the team from his BAR days – although they split on very bad terms.

I can’t see it happening but I’d love to see JV back in F1!

By: Fabio

Fabio — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:21:22 +0000

i highly doubt Button could do anything to Massa.
Put it this way, would Button match Raikkonen, maybe, beat him, not really.
Button is in a car that’s the quickest in qualifying and race pace. if you think Button would have 5 out of 6 wins with Massa as his team mate, then i must have Felipe Massa confused wth another driver last year…….

By: Janet

Janet — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:13:32 +0000

Jenson should stay with Brawn. He made a lot of money with Honda. Now he needs to be in the best car! Brawn is that car……today! That may all change next season, but I think he should stay put. If the car is a dog next season, he can sign with the likes of Macca or Ferrari as by then he would most certainly be a World Champion!

By: john g

john g — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:09:04 +0000

i would think the mclaren ‘hit-list’ for kovalainnen replacements is quite long!! however, lewis probably won’t want someone too good like vettel or rosberg in there, heikki is a good number 2

By: rpaco

rpaco — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:37:56 +0000

If you live according to your means you are no better off as a millionaire.

By: MichaelC

MichaelC — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:34:13 +0000

Jenson doesn’t seem to be rated by some people, which is quite strange. He trains very hard and his driving style is one that suits the changes made to the rules recently. He seems to bring little ‘baggage’ as well. Having read the comments Ross Brawn has been making it sounds like he would be an asset to the team. Of course (for sure?) the car is important, I think Alonso said it was 80% car 20% driver, but you need a driver who can get the best from the equipment. It is impossible to know if another driver would do a better job, for example everyone thought Alonso would dominate Hamilton at Maclaren, unless both drivers are at the same team. It is perhaps ironic that Alonso turned down an approach from Honda/Brawn and that Flavio Briatore approached Jenson to drive for him in the winter.
Certainly (for sure?) teams other than Brawn are interested in signing a driver who with the right equipment can deliver results. Also Jenson did take a pay cut just to drive the unproven Brawn, not to mention buy his way out of the Williams contract to sign for Honda.

I believe he will stay provided Brawn can prove they have the ambition and resources to push for the title in future years. This has always been the most important thing to him in my opinion. Because he is a good fit with the team and ‘presumably’ has a good relationship with the people there they will be keen to offer him a contract to keep him there for many years more.

By: Lynda

Lynda — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:55:03 +0000

I thought they’d considered young Senna this season so he’s a real possibility…

By: Thyraeus

Thyraeus — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:26:14 +0000

“And Williams have a strong line up in Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima”?

Williams…the F1 Team? That’s news to me!

By: Colster

Colster — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:51:02 +0000

I think that any racing driver will stay with the team if he believes that they will supply him a championship winning car.

James – are you lining up to do Jenson’s autobiography? “9 years and 1 World Championship?”

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:52:41 +0000

Well, the gap between “permanent” F1 drivers shouldn’t be bigger than that. Every F1 driver should be able to beat a champion once in a while, like Fisi did to Alonso, Rubens and Massa did to Michael.
The difference was though Micheal was generally half a second faster than his teammates with heavier fuel load. Even with Massa, who is currently more than a match to a world champion.