In total the Red Bull was the fastest car in qualifying for 7 out 12 events and at Spa they were faster than the Brawn GP’s

So all in all the Red Bull has been the fastest car this season by far.

The fact that they didn’t cash in on their qualifying performance lies in their poor strategies (getting Vettel stuck behind KJERS cars while the slower Button qualified light and kept in front or overook them). Major part is of course Vettel crashing in 4 races. Serioulsy, 4 races where he was involved in race ending accidents! Webber had some accidents too and he’s not really the fastest driver.

Which race did they stop doing that and move to a closer compound? I actaully think that this is one of the things that helped to increase the drivers effect on the speed of the car

I am not taking anything away from his pole to chequered flag wins, he performs great in a well set-up car…as we saw in 2004.

I think it’s because unlike the greats he has never pulled out a killer performance in an underperforming car. Where is his Spain 1996, his Hungary 1998? I also can’t forget the way that he was crushed by Fisichella at Benetton.

Everyone’s angry at Massa but i don’t remember anyone mentioning Buttons comments in 2007.

Well Jenson has been doing that (aside from getting rear-ended in Spa through no fault of his own)…

(1) Give him a near-perfect car and he will perform perfectly, time after time again. Here he transcends even the biggest names in the sport. I talk here about the 6/7 at the beginning of this season.

(2) Give him a car which is not to his liking and he struggles ‘outperform the car’ in a way in which other stellar drivers do not. I talk here about the ‘slump’ although to an extent this may be unfair on Jenson, since what seems to be the problem is particular problem with the way the Brawn uses its tyres, a problem which is exacerbated for Jenson by his driving style.

(3) But even in the case of (2), he is relentlessly mistake-free, in conspicuous contrast to his main championship rivals. Hence, even in the slump, his points lead has survived relatively unscathed.

I doubt there is much to the suggestion that he is ‘cracking’ under the pressure; of course, there is pressure and, perhaps, this has some effect, but there seem to be much more concrete reasons for the recent ‘slump’.