Button insists he is better at driving a bad car than Hamilton

De La Rosa and Alonso, both being Spaniards had a close relationship. They exchanged text and email messages almost daily. This more than anything wore on Hami, as most of the development testing went to Alonso first. Alonso worked closely with De La Rosa on the setups and as the season wore on, Alonso began to withhold information from Hami and the setups weren't shared as freely. Hami had little setup experience in F1 cars and relied on the shared information. Hami's slow start to this season was blamed on his inexperience with setups and the fact that Alonso had left the team. Alonso was sure Hami would fail this season without him, but De La Rosa worked with Hami and after the first 4 races or so, Hami had found the setup and the rest is history. And let's not lose sight of the fact that De La Rosa is an exceptional test and setup driver.

 

There are no equal drivers on ANY top team in any type of motorsports.

 

True, but at least other teams are up front about it.

 

Fisi used to have a reputation as a driver who could be in a midfield car and outperform it's potential. Yet, when he was in a championship winning car, he was never on Alonso's pace.
Just because someone can do well in a terrible car, doesn't mean that they will do good in a great car.

 

That's true but Fisi had alot of DNFs in 05 in the Renault. Plus Alonso was simply better than him.

 

Basically what Button is saying is that he's better at sucking than Hamilton is.

Aim high!

 

do u guys actually think Button is a great driver? i mean, based on the current grid, i think he is. he had a couple of good races in a competitve BAR in 2004, scored the most points than any driver in 2006 ( 2nd half ), and also is one of the best rain drivers out there today. but i think he lacks the talent and skill of car developing.

 

A friend of mine told me that he'd rather be lucky than smart. In Jense's case, he bought himself generous helpings of unluck* combined with further generous helpings of unluck*.

*Unluck: Bad luck can be described as bad things happening to someone arising from events outside their control. Getting mauled by a Kodiak Bear whilst you, the nature hiker, shat in the woods is not a prime example of this, as we all know only bears (of all types natural, not Chicago) shat in the woods, but only if there are no trees falling and no one is there to hear them fall. The lesson in this? Do not shat in the same woods in which a bear would shat, unless you have ready access to a large caliber weapon. A better example of bad luck, you...sitting out on your lawn at night, enjoying a cigar whilst contemplating the twinkling stars as a meteorite on the last stint of its billion years journey finally succumbs to Earth's gravity and survives entry into our atmosphere, ending in a deep impact with your face and subsequent atomization your cranium...this is a prime example of bad luck, but rest assured knowing that it took the universe a billion years to kill you. Unluck can be defined as unfortunate circumstances brought upon oneself by...oneself. One can invoke the misfortunes of unluck via many different avenues; stupidity, blind hubris, 20/20 hubris in which Hubris is always great if it works in your favor and your 50/50 game of chance paid off; petulance, indifference...the list is long and wordy, but hubris, specifically the self love and reaffirmation of such whilst standing naked in front of a floor to ceiling mirror is perhaps what Button is most guilty of.
**Mukluck: When your boots of Yupik origin suddenly and surprisingly arrest your slide into a deep and dark crevasse during a cloudless and starry night. The origin of the saying is thus, " Thank your muklucky stars" and not the commonly accepted saying of, "Thank your lucky stars".

 

It depends on what you mean by 'equal drivers'. McLaren, Ferrari and most other teams let their drivers race one another until the points situation dictates that one driver is given precedence and the other plays a support role. Before the start of the season it would have been assumed that Kimi was the number one driver at Ferrari and Felipe was number two, but despite salary difference or anything else that might suggest # 1 and # 2, events proved that they were given an equal opportunity to win the WDC. Last season it was clear that the same applied at McLaren.

 

I agree. Button has done nothing to warrant his "praise". RB works hard and would be a great influence on a young driver. Of course, Honda needs to step up with a better performance platform for any of this to matter. I would love to see 4 or 5 teams fighting it out for the WCC and thereby creating a very exciting WDC.

 

I still find it hard to believe that common sense wouldn't get in the way of his saying that. Maybe in his head it didn't sound like an excuse but to me it comes across as pathetic. I guess he has to find a way to fall asleep at night.

 

What point is he trying to make anyways? What does he expect Hamilton to do? "Oh no, Jenson has said I'm not good in a bad car, let me give up my top ride so I can show him, mr. one win."

 

Boy, you will say anything to convince yourself that Hamilton isn't really a great driver huh?

And all of your reasoning is BS.

You say Hamilton was the "chosen one" at McLaren when he demonstrably was not.

You say the McLaren was the best car this year when it demonstrably was not.

You say Heiki did badly because he was the #2 when he demonstrably was not.

You say Hamilton was only in a good car due to testing of others which is also demonstrably untrue.




Why don't you just acknowledge the Hamilton is an excellent driver, and he whipped Ferraris butt in a slower car. Because that is precisely what happened.

 

I think he probably had a mic stuffed in his mouth and said some things that may have been taken out of context.

I doubt there is an F1 driver out there who doesn't think they are the best driver "if only they had the right car.....".

 

Mike's right, the lower half of the grid regulars are faced with a conundrum.

- As an F1 driver you must believe you're the best in the field. If you don't, you don't deserve your seat.
- If you tell everyone you're the best in the field, people will laugh at you because you don't have the results.

So Button sort of took a middle ground and didn't explicitly state he's believes he's better than Lewis.

 

I would hardly call one point garnered on the last lap of the last race a butt whoopin...

 

I say nothing, Heikki said it. He would know better than me. And you too for that matter.

Hamilton won the championship, plain and simple, he also had a great car, the best in the field at times, if you didn't see that then you were on another planet.

 

Did you completely ignore what IanMac said? If there were two Heikki Kovailanens driving the Mclaren, it probably would look like a mid field car. To say it was the smoothest best handling car out of nowhere is ridiculous. There's no proof of that anywhere. Had plenty of power? Everyone knows the Ferrari has the most HP. There's really no logic in your response.

You really think a heavier FUEL LOAD caused HK to score 45 less points than Hamilton. Its not like Mclaren put HK on 1 stoppers and Lewis on 2 stoppers, he only had two or three more laps of fuel in his car, which is usually less than 0.2 seconds in qualifying time difference.

 

Were you watching the races at all? When did the McLaren ever look like it was a handful? Both HK and LH looked smoother than the Kimi or Felipe, especially on the on board camera view. The McLaren was way better than the Ferrari over bumps. Power wise Ferrari had and edge, I didn't say they didn't, but the Mercedes engine wasn't too far off of it either.


Yes I completely ignored what IanMac said because it made no sense. So what you and he are trying to say is that the McLaren that missed out on the title last year and won it this year is a midfield car? BS, the problem was with Hekki not the car.

0.2 of a second? more like 0.5. If he starts a couple of positions back from Hamilton he's got an uphill battle every race and would be at a disadvantage. 3 DNFs didn't help him either.

 

1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 98
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 97
3. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 75
4. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 75
5. Fernando Alonso Renault 61
6. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 60
7. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 53
8. Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 35

You see Luis the above tells a different story, last year the guy you rate the best in F1 was behind/par LH, in the standings.

 

I don't really get the point you are trying to make Steve. I responded to people trying to imply that the McLaren was somehow a midfield car. It obviously was not.

 

Well the point is, Mclaren is not a mid field car, but it is also not head and shoulders above there rivals, so I think IanMac's point which was a bit tongue in cheek, is saying that you seemed to be dismissing the fact, that LH is a great driver, if LH drove it like HK, it would appear to be a mid-pack car.

The car is a big factor, but it doesn't mean you are going to win in it, I just pointed out the difference in the standing's and you can't account for all of it by misfortune, and designated #2 driving.

 

Obviously he's a great driver, I don't question that. I don't really agree with the idea that the McLaren was anything other than a top car. There were weekends that the Ferrari was untouchable, there were also weekends that the McLaren had the advantage. If the McLaren wasn't a great car how could Hekki, whom no one rates anymore, manage to win a race? It may not have been better than the Ferrari all the time but it certainly had the advantage some of the time, in the wet especially, and it rained quite a bit this season.

 

Well yes! there is a point mother nature, 1st half the season Mclaren was a much better car in the wet.

Had Massa started as he finished, with an all round weather car, he may well have been a legit winning WDC.

 

The McLaren was better all year long in the wet. While Massa has his issues in the wet, Kimi is usually pretty good, and he seemed not to be able to get the power down as well as the McLaren was able to at spa.