last season button won both of his races in wet/changable conditions.this season he won his first race in wet/changable conditions,so a pattern is starting to emerge. the problem is most races will be in dry conditions.so what you have to ask yourselfs is can button beat lewis more often than not in the dry to stay closer to vettel and be his closest title challenger?i dont think he can.i think lewis will have learnt alot from watching the race in canada and youll see that in the next races.i think alonso will even come back strong too.
Vettel is very much on target for this year's title and one bookmaker has apparently already paid out on bets placed for him as Champion 2011! But the thread raises a perfectly valid question nonetheless. So here are a few of my thoughts⦠Webber is unlikely (to be allowed?) to mount a real challenge to Vettel, even if he can improve his qualifying, although I strongly disagree with the suggestion that he might be 9th best driver on the grid. Alonso has no challenge from his team mate, but is a very long way behind. Hamilton has Button likely to take points from him. Button has Hamilton likely to take points from him. Most likely scenario is Vettel romping away into the distance whilst the McLaren duo duel it out, with Alonso tagging along and telling the world, "Don't forget me!". Realistically, Vettel has everything in his favour but if the highly unlikely actually does happen, I expect the biggest challenge to come from Hamilton or Button, one of whom I expect to finish second in the Championship.
I have thought about the 'taking points away from each other' negative and I think it is not really valid just for Button and Hamilton because they are in the same team. This is because all four drivers are in almost singular teams in regards to just the WDC so it does not matter that Button and Hamilton are using the same car, Button, Hamilton, Webber and Alonso will all be taking points of each other, it is irrelevent what team the are driving for. The only driver that will benefit from this is Vettel because he is the one with the lead, if he had only one driver challenging him then that driver would be able to close him down at a greater rate, however the more drivers you add to the equation the slower it will usually take to bridge the gap.
I know it is ifs and buts but Button could of won Monaco if it was not for the SCs and the red flag and he also could of won Monza 2010 if Mclaren did not screw up his pitstop. He certainly had the pace and position to win those dry races it was just varibles outside of his control that prevented him.
0% Mark Webber? I am really dissapointed with him this year. and I feel his RBR carear is coming to an end. I would of been happy to recognise him as the 2010 champion as he would of deserved it but the 2011 mark webber is a shadow. 2011 Mark Webber < 2002 Mark Webber
True, but then you could argue that the safety cars in Canada helped him to win there. I agree however that he certainly has shown he has the pace in Monaco, I wouldn't be surprised to see him win another couple of races this year.
Interesting article, I think the problem for Jenson is that Lewis is faster than him in qualifying and usually the race. The problem for Lewis is that his aggressive moves and trying to win the race in the first two laps makes him likely to DNF. Alonso is very far back and you could argue it might be too little too late even if they turn thing around in Silverstone. Webber...well after 7 races he has taken NO points from his team mate...Ouch, need I say more. I believe Lewis has the best chance, but hes got to learn from JB with consistancy when racing. Though the title is still very much Sebs at the moment!
The point is that if push comes to shove, Red Bull and Ferrari will focus the main effort on their leading driver, far sooner than will happen at McLaren. The reason is two-fold: 1/ Red Bull and Ferrari both have one driver well clear of their respective team-mates. 2/ McLaren's philosophy in letting their drivers do battle all the way through is not the case with Ferrari or Red Bull. This is why the 'taking points from each other' argument is more valid when speaking of McLaren than the other teams.
The first reason I agree with, but McLaren's history with team orders isn't as clean as Red Bull's. Everyone was saying Red Bull should back Webber last year and they didn't, the year before Webber was mathematically out while Vettel still had a chance and they didn't back Vettel. McLaren on the other hand, used Kovalainen as a pawn in 2008 and some of the stuff that went on with Mika and DC was just as dubious as the stuff that went on with Schumi and Rubens around the same time. Ferrari are the only team I could see implementing team orders, and I think even they would try to avoid the bad publicity and only do it in extreme circumstances.
That's exactly it, RBR would be foolish to let Webber start taking points off Vettel at this stage of the season, and Massa, well, I've never really rated Massa, far too inconsistent, if he'd had a more 'interested' team-mate in 2008, like Alonso, Ferrari would probably have won the WDC, so I can't see Massa mounting any sort of challenge at all, his only task now is to try and give Ferrari a reason to keep him on. Hamiltons main problem is his frustration at being so far behind and impatience to win, he's so far behind Vettel that it only increases the pressure he puts on himself to win, which I think will only make it more likely for him to be involved in race ending collisions as he sees another WDC slip through his fingers. He seems to have to Ricky Bobby philosophy 'if you're not first you're last', it's getting to the point that I can't see him winning another title unless he is given the best car on the grid from the start, which is a shame.
To be honest I think the only reason Red Bull did not use team orders last year was because Webber and not Vettel was leading the championship, look at Silverstone, they were quite willing to favour the driver with the most points when Vettel was ahead of Webber, I think that if Vettel was leading the championship last year like Webber was then they would of backed him. Red Bull will back Vettel to the hilt this year even at the expense of Webber especially now that Webber is not really up there at the moment.
But that would've been a similar scenario to 2009 when Webber refused to help him despite being out of contention. If Webber was leading from Vettel in Valencia, they'd let Webber win. Maybe if it got tighter they'd tell Webber to step aside, but does anybody honestly expect Webber to yield?
Webber will never yield to better his team, I think it's pretty obvious that Webber thinks of Webber first, second and always, which is why he keeps running his mouth off to every reporter and camera he can find, undermining his teams and team-mates at almost every opportunity. If RBR are scuppering his chances tehn I can only say he's bought it on himself with his attitude
