Comments on: Button: “The best race of my life”

By: James Allen

James Allen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:28:41 +0000

I think it will yes, but all teams are going to phase it

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:33:19 +0000

HI James,
Do you think the cost-cutting will affect some of the bigger teams? I suspect the first few stages of car development will have been completed, but at some stage McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull & Toyota will have to implement major changes to their staffing numbers. to have staff waiting to know where the axe might fall would not be good for morale. With Brawn having had ‘the pain’ of major staff cuts, do you think that they are in a better position to compete & develop their car all the way through 2010?.

PS
Thanks for the Bloggs this season, I can only say that they were excellent! The BBC’s loss has been our gain.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:52:48 +0000

I am not denying the fact that every championship winner is very very talented, including Button.

But it is undeniable fact that the competition does not always represent the best of the best.

Alain Prost said Lewis was very quick too. But the difference is that he can win in an inferior car. He can drives 0.7 sec faster than his teammate.

Zidane was may be the best footballer but he and his team was often beaten. It would be unfair to say that other team captain beat him for world footballer championship.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that F1 is the same as football, but a driver probably contributes just a bit more than what a team captain does in a football team.

So I am not sure if driver championship is as relevant as Bernie wanted it to be.

By: DAN

DAN — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:26:40 +0000

Brillant post Glen. I totally agree with that! Over the years I have admired many great drivers, supported a few and disliked a few more as well but I always acknowledged the achievement of the ones who delivered even if I was not necessarily a fan of them. What a real F1 fan wants to see is good racing irrespective of who the driver is or of his nationality.

By: john g

john g — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:07:40 +0000

the OWG have said much the same thing – you ask a driver where they can overtake, and they might say just one or two corners are the only chance. their arguement was to have a track consisting of a lot more corners where you can overtake, but i’m not sure mr tilke has the formula for those corner on his computer…

personally i think it’s both – some circuits simply do not offer any opportunity, but any series where it’s a disadvantage to follow someone rather than an advantage will not give you close racing

By: Marcello

Marcello — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:50:02 +0000

I actually believe Hamilton, and McLaren could have won it again this year if their momentum wasn’t thwarted by F1 politics with the so-called lying scandal.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:23:01 +0000

Very well said!

By: Glen Slagg

Glen Slagg — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:44:49 +0000

But the driver’s championship is still relevant if you take into account that part of the challenge is to get into the right team / car in the first place. And you can follow that all of the way back to where the driver started. Most of the drivers had to be outstanding to climb the ladder to F1. At the time Button came into F1, he was noted as being exceptionally quick (by Alan Prost, no less). Where he has lacked “skill” is not behind the wheel, but in career decisions – until this season, that is.
And besides, even though JB wobbled somewhat before Brazil, he was genuinely brilliant in the first part of the season.
The only question mark over his abilities, for me, is the “wobble factor”, but that happened to Hamilton too (twice) and I don’t think that it will happen to either of them again.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:27:46 +0000

Thanks for sharing interesting views.

I was rather contemplating the definition of world driver championship and started to question if it is just a marketing tool to keep everyone interested.

If it is a teamwork, there shouldn’t be driver championship, should it?

Most of the time, it is the machine that decides the title. The most talented drivers are just happen to be behind the wheel.

F1 business model is and has always been a constructor competition where interests are driven by debates.

And that’s raises a lot of questions towards its creditability as a sport.

Rules change -> certain team benefited -> a talented driver win championship

My friend(who doesn’t know F1) asked “Is Button is one of the best top 3 drivers?”

And I was like “Hmmm that’s a good question.”

By: Werewolf

Werewolf — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:05:43 +0000

Absolutely nothing to apologise for, your points are perfectly valid.

The recent FOTA/FIA shenanigans prove (on balance of probability!), I think, that Ferrari did have an elevated position; yet Todt, Brawn and Schumacher (plus Byrne) were an incomparable team for all the right as well as wrong reasons.

As a positive, it is so good to see the change in Ross Brawn since freed from the Ferrari corporation. I guess it is to his professional credit that he played the part so well but the more genial, open and apparently straightforward Brawn of today is a breath of fresh air. I suspect few people are reading this older thread now but I’d love to see him pick up a New Year honour (alongside Button) for his efforts in 2009.

As for the election, my heart is with Vatanen but my head says not only that Todt will win but that his limited improvement over latter era Mosley maybe more workable than the division and controversy that Vatanen could bring. Regrettably, too many years of corporate politics have made me cynical of idealists in a world of vested interests.