It is a staggering statistic that over 50% of Jenson Buttonâs wins have come in changeable conditions. In fact, it is over two years since JB last won in the dry so surely it is time for us to question his ability to win without the wet stuff. This takes nothing away from his wonderful wet weather wins with McLaren that were full of brilliant stategic decisions and have prompted many deserved comparisons with the âProfessorâ Alain Prost. He clearly has a natural instinct to make the right choices in the rain and is able to make the wet tyres last that crucial amount longer that is critical in varying weather. However, this dry weather problem is even more worrying when his wins without rain are examined more closely. All of them came at the start of his championship-winning year in the Brawn which was the undisputed class of the field. Furthermore, three of these (the 2009 Australian, Spanish and Monaco GPs) were from pole and given the nature of these tracks, getting that number one slot is more than halfway along the path to victory. That just leaves his wins in Bahrain and Turkey. Bahrain saw a determined drive from Button in the opening laps which included several passes on a track that doesnât exactly scream overtaking, but in Turkey he inherited the lead very early on when poleman Vettel ran wide. So, realistically, that means of his dry wins only the 2009 Bahrain victory did he actually have to truly fight for. Given his star status and vast F1 experience this is very surprising. And, perhaps, if he ever wants to win a championship again this issue may need tackling. Or perform a rain dance every GP weekend!
Australia 09 Bahrain 09 Barcelona 09 Monaco 09 Turkey 09 Monza 10 and Monaco 11 he could of easily won if he had a smidgen of luck or even just no bad luck. You can make excuses for any driver's wins and claim they were not deserved or were lucky.
The problem is that Jenson's greatest strengths are tactics, strategy and consistency, these skills come to the fore in changeable conditions. When its dry its very hard for the faster drivers also in top teams to get it wrong i.e. Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel.
Well he can win in the dry because he has done, all this years wins apart from Vettel's have been tactical wins Hamilton's were down to having more sets of fresh tyres and so on, you may as well ask can Vettel win from a mid field grid slot.
Button can definitely win in the dry. The problem is his qualifying - he must learn (and maybe he has) to drive 'on the ragged edge' in final qualifying rather than the ultra smooth style he adopts whilst in the actual race. Also, if he hadn't had those 2 reliability failures recently then whilst he wouldn't have won those races, he would have had at least 1 podium & one 5th at the least, which would put him clearly 2nd and in with a small shout (subject to consistancy) of putting Vettell under pressure.
I think the problem may be his smooth driving style. I did a test on gran turismo earlier, firstly driving on the ragged edge as usual, secondly swapping to a smoother style. My best times were done with the ragged edge driving style. I was on average, half a second slower in the same car (my trusty NSX) on the same track.
Maybe you could let Jenson know of your test, and give him a few pointers. I'm sure he'd be thrilled that you played a game to work out where he is going wrong.
Don't quote this Cowboy kid, I don't want to read anything he writes after his comments about Italians
Sadly it seems that the rain really sorts the men from the boys, and allows the real talent to shine, unless your name is Jenson Button. When Senna won in the wet everyone wet themselves about it. When Schuey won in the wet people called him the Rainmaster. When Button wins in the wet he gets questioned about why he doesn't win in the dry. The poor guy can't win with some of us armchair fans.
Button can obviously win in the dry, it's a bit like those people who say Vettel can't overtake, nonsense really.
Don't mock. I did it properly. Good wheel and pedals, no driver aids, no on screen racing line, and i did it on the nurburgring gp track, so i used a real f1 circuit. It was a serious scientific experiment, proving that looking after tyres doesn't win you races.
Whats wrong with it. Look, i'm within the top 1000 gran turismo players worldwide. Always inside the top 1000 on online time trials and stuff, so i'm pretty good, and i can tell the difference in driving styles, and i was faster when letting the car get away from me, rather than progressively using the accelerator and the brakes. Don't mock, gran turismo 5 is about as realistic a driving game as they come, far better than f1 2010.
I can't tell if you are being serious or sarcastic. Kudos if it is the latter, massive face palm if it is the former.
