***SPOILER**** Mr. Button, meet GerryD...

In the spirit of the debate around the "predictable unpredictability" of Formula 1, here is a driver giving his own opinion on the 'randomness' of F1. Draw your own conclusions...



Button fears unpredictability overkill
Tuesday 29th May 2012

Button fears unpredictability overkill
Jenson Button has warned that fans could lose their interest in Formula One if the random results continue.

Six different drivers have now stood on the top step of the podium in the first six races of the season, the first time that it has happened in the sport's 62-year history.

Mark Webber won Sunday's Monaco GP while Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado also have race wins under the belt.

While a lot of fans have welcomed the unpredictability of the current season, Button warns that it might not be good for the sport in the long term.

"Fernando is leading because he has been more consistent than other people," he said.

"Whether he is in the best car or not no-one is ever going to know, but the consistency is there.

"He is obviously doing a great job - the car is working well - whereas there aren't many other drivers that have had that consistency.

"Clearly everyone is excited about so many different winners, which initially was great for the fans and great for the sport.

"But there will come a time when the fans will say, 'So anyone can win a grand prix, everyone can lose a grand prix like that?' (snaps his fingers).

"I think they're finding it a little bit strange now.

"I don't know, but hopefully a pattern will emerge after the next couple of races and we'll understand the teams and drivers we need to beat to win the Championship."

 

Err, Jenson, consistency has always won championships. No one knows that any better than you!.....

Err, Jenson, in order to win the championsip you've got to beat all the other guys! Simple really...... The fact that there's ~10 other guys that can win just makes it a little harder IMO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

The last two seasons everybody cried foul over the domination by RB and Vettel.

This year there is a good chance Vettel will win again but it is anything but a foregone conclusion yet some still compain.

Go figure.

 

I think it is still too early; it's not like there are going to be 20 different winners. Consistency and relliability are going to win the championship this year- barring some mid-season EBD type development by a team.

 

+1

And there's nothing wrong with that IMO.

You've still got to consistently & reliably beat the, now many, other guys capable of winning.

You've gotta get on top of the tires better than the others.

You've gotta have good strategy - Ferrari got Fred's stop right for once last week and he gained a spot.

You better not crash or run out of fuel pressure.

Overall, if you're gonna win it all, you're the best! As it should be IMO

Cheers,
Ian

 

The unpredictability of this season is very exciting and keeps me wanting more.

 

Indeed!

As for Seb, I don't think so. He *may* win it, sure, but I'd bet the odds on him are longer now than before the season. For sure, he's not the happy dominant camper we got used to.

Further, as I've said before, three in a row is incredibly unusual.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

Somebody will win 2 races soon ... might even be Jensen.

Pete

 

Vettel and Hamilton are potential race winners, as might even be someone like Perez. So potentially it's possible to have 8-9 different race winners in the first 8-9 races!

 

Seb has already won one of course.

But yeh, McHam is certainly in the frame. As is Michael and both Fauxti ahead of either Sauber IMO, but who knows!?.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

Would JB be saying this if he was on the top of the charts, is what I ask myself.

 

Stop talking to yourself. People will start laughing.

 

LOL another great F1 insight.

 

good lord, silly season just went stupid :facepalm:

 

He's just saying that because he's doing pretty badly at the moment. If he won the last 2 races, he'll definitely say something else...

 

Considering the fact he hasn't been eliminated after 3 bad races, one would assume the current situation suits him fine. Apparently it doesn't though.

 

Merc passing up ferrari, ferrari falling back into the 80s, red bull no longer being dominant (I even explained why yet was called crazy lol), and a tighter field.

What sucks royally are the tires and almost making every weekend a lottery. It's ok seeing otherwise mid field cars perform fairly but it seems to be distracting from the real order of business, which is the championship. I definitely understand Jensen's point, it makes the races where the true top teams aren't performing more of a distraction then a race.

 

I think you are misquoting everyone on last 2 years. I remember saying (and others did too) that what was wierd was that the RBs were so strong and then they started losing when it was obvious that they were much much stronger than the rest of the field. Then in the final few races they would comeback. It looked very much fabricated. RB was obvously the stronger car but why the sudden "let others back into the race thing happening"? The rules have been dickered with more in the last 6 years than ever before and its very obvious that it was done to attain the results that are happening this season. If you are a race purist, then you will be pissed off because this is not real racing, but if you are like many fans of many sports who have a few pints and pay attention to the race only at the green lights and the checkered flag then you are happy.

 

Your right John but most dont care. As I said earlier, most are not racing purists. They just want the entertainment while sucking back a few bears at the pub.

 

Yes, and the purists will still watch it.

 

Hey, chances are that there will be 9 or 10 different winners this year and the WDC may be someone that only wins 3 or 4 races out of 20. Yes he was the most consistant but still managed to lose 16 races. Its really a farce. Its now a show and thats all it is. If someone came out with an ultimate racing series(what F1 used to be) and had no limits on testing, downforce and their cars were shod with rubber and not wood, we would see those cars be faster than F1 cars within 3 seasons. Why? Because the handicapping makes the F1 bosses more money. How many drivers this year will eclipse 200 points? Remind you of another series here in America?

 

Not really. I know many who used to travel to races all over the world over the years and never ever miss a race on the tele. These same people would rather take their cars out for a drive on sunday now. There will always be fans. Damn, Jerry springer is still on the air.

 

Many of you are missing a very important point.

Which championship is easier to win for driver X?

1. A year where driver X wins nearly all races, or
2. A year where driver X wins only a couple of races.

Of course it is the second situation because he does not have an obvious car advantage. Yes the rules are adjusted to make the TV show better, but when we have huge car advantages (think MS at Ferrari and Vettel wins at RB) then it is TOO easy for the driver.

The WDC should be the best driver and they should have to work hard all season long and if that means even scrabbling to a 4th place ocassionally to get the points because the car sncked all weekend long then that was a great bit of driving. This is something that Massa has never worked out and why he does NOT ever deserve to be a WDC. You cannot just give up and cruise the rest of the race because the car is hard work.

This BTW is why all haters of Alonso need to slap themselves in the face and get a life. The guy never, ever gives up and that is a real competitor and that is why team managers respect the guy.
Pete

 

Actually I would like to see wide open racing where the results are not manipulated. If anyone thinks that F1 is not being manipulated for the money then they had better get checked out. If you want the best driver to win then you may as well start an F1-IROC series. All constructors would put in a bid and the highest wins. Everyone drives the same car.
Come on man.....F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport but it is now the dummying of everything motorsport for the sake of making more money and many suckers are swallowing it. I know thats a hard one to swallow but its the simple truth. Its sort of like the guy whos been married for 25 years and refuses to believe that his wife is not screwing around when she cums home late every Friday night. Lets get real boys!

 

On the one hand, it could be a grand conspiracy fabricated by the FIA and teams to sucker millions of people into watching a series full of false drama, and this secret is *so* tightly kept that no team, no driver, nobody in the press and nobody in the FIA has ever spilled the truth about it, despite it requiring the orchestration of thousands of people who all have their own motivations, biases and moral compasses.

OR

It could just be that all the teams are competing and changing the cars and the cars do better or worse depending on the track.

I'll leave it to the reader to decide which is plausible and which isn't.

That's patently false. There have been less rule changes these last 6 years than ever before. Banning tire changes, then allowing them again, then changing the engine size, then the displacement, then changing the entire qualifying format twice... those are all things that happened more than 6 years ago. And if you go back further, just look at Williams totally active aerodynamic system, or rules that allowed 6 wheeled cars, or "fan" cars, only to be written out of the rules the following year.

The past years have seen more stability in rules than ever before.

This most definitely is real racing. It's no different than prior years. In fact, the racing is more real than ever before. It's less a game about building a superior car and running away with it than it is about real racing on the track.

Those who are real race fans are loving this season. Those who aren't real race fans are the ones who don't like it.