Jenson's woes

[sparkione]

Can anyone think of a precedent for so sudden and dramatic a fall-off of form and results as that which Jenson is currently experiencing? He wins the first race of the season, figures strongly in the next few, then falls of a cliff!
The car hash't changed significantly, he says it's not the tyres, and you don't forget how to do it just like that. Never seen anything like it...

[neiltb]

It is strange, people on here think Massa has pressure mounting on him for his drive. Jenson seems to be struggling with confidence just to get stuck in and drive the damn thing.

[stripedcat]

It might just be a mid-season dip in performance(a little like his championship year in 2009, when Rubens seemed to be a lot stronger). I think he could come back to take some more wins soon. He does however, have a big problem of getting heat into the tyres. It has always been a problem for him.

[henners88]

In my view Jenson is in danger of falling back into the pattern of his old self pre 2009. He's always struggled to adapt to a car not quite to his liking with tyre heating issues often admited. He needs to step up as its not a case of silly mistakes taking points away, but more like underperforming in a car very capable of winning races. McLaren need the constructors points and I hope he recovers his form.

[Bononi]

Is he the next Massa ?????





I hope not.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Is he the next Massa ?????

Button to Ferrari?

Yeah, it's a pity but Jenson's always been a driver with a small operating window. I would love to see Jenson start putting in the results again soon, although it makes me chuckle to think of all of those who rubbished Hamilton last year with their comments about Button actually being a much superior driver.

[beau1]

Personally, I think Button is driving the worst out of the current WDCs on the grid. It is difficult to pin-point why though but his last two races have been terrible for someone that has a car that should finish in the top 5.

[garcon]

It all seems to boil down to what is happening in that hour on a Saturday afternoon. He can be on the pace in practice, and then mysteriously off it in quali. Underperforming in quali then puts the pressure on to try something special to rescue the race. The worry is that neither Jenson nor the team seem to know how to put it right.

Conversely, I think this is also a big factor in Lewis feeling at ease with himself having (ironically) learned a thing or two from Jenson about playing the long game and banking points rather than risking all for the race win.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by beau1

Personally, I think Button is driving the worst out of the current WDCs on the grid. It is difficult to pin-point why though but his last two races have been terrible for someone that has a car that should finish in the top 5.

I think that's pretty clear - Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton are all driving great. Raikkonen's been up and down, but that's more down to the car. Schumacher's driving fine but just needs the bad luck off his back.

To be honest, I'd say Button is driving worse than most of the field these last couple races. I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I think the McLaren is probably, overall, the best car to be in right now, by just a tiny amount. But only when the tyres are working for it. There's been other cars that have been faster in certain races, but they're not consistent, and can't qualify so well. McLaren's strong qualifying (from Hamilton) might just win them the WC.

I do think Red Bull will continue at the front now, and Ferrari is faster than what Alonso keeps telling everyone. He could have won Canada if he stayed on Hamilton's strategy.

Button is almost out of the championship now - 2 race wins is a lot to make up, especially when it's at least 3 drivers that you need to make it up on. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso would all have to retire from 2 races that Button wins.

[rpolinski]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Button to Ferrari?

I was more thinking Massa to McLaren

[wnut]

Not to rain on Jenson's departure but this from Grandprix.com



"Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: Lewis drove a great lap in Q3 today, and will start tomorrow's race from the front row as a result. And when Lewis is on the front row, you always fancy his chances, don't you? Jenson, having lost a lot of track time through no fault of his own yesterday, was always going to be playing catch-up today. In the circumstances, therefore, he did very well to get through to Q3 this afternoon, especially as it was so close at the top of the time-sheets. But, in getting there, he'd used up all his new Option tyres, which meant there was little point in his re-using one of his already-used sets of Options in Q3, since doing so would have been unlikely to have afforded him the opportunity to improve his grid position significantly over the P10 that was already in the bag by virtue of having made it through to Q3. So, instead, he did just one run in Q3 on new Primes, and will therefore start tomorrow's race on those Primes. I suppose you could say it's a slightly adventurous strategy - but then, given Jenson's troubled running so far, an adventurous strategy was always going to be what was required for him here today. And, as we all know, having watched with fearful thrill his wondrous run from stone-last to triumphant first here last year, there's probably no-one in the world better able to exploit an adventurous strategy at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve than Jenson Button."

[alfettafan]

Massa is showing some signs of improvement in the last couple of races. He had caught a bout of Badoer and it seems to take a while to shake off. It also appears that the Badoer bug is air born and Jenson has now caught it. When JB said after Malaysia that Alonso was not a worry he was right, he knew he had caught the Badoer and he is now suffering the full effects...

[formerf1champ]

Just going through a trough.

[OZ_HCR32]

I think it's more to do with the fact that Button has never been a good qualifier. In the past being 0.3-0.4 sec off Hamilton maybe cost him 1 or 2 places on the grid. When you have 5-6 manufacturers in the hunt and the top 12 cars covered by 1 second....his off quali performances are being exasperated.

I enjoy watching drivers struggle. Hamo has shown growth in character and recovered from last years holiday with the pixies..Webber seems to be back more or less after a shocking first half of 2011.. I expect Button will recover as he has been there before and bounced back.

But back to my original point, he is an average qualifier and is paying the price at present

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by OZ_HCR32

I think it's more to do with the fact that Button has never been a good qualifier. In the past being 0.3-0.4 sec off Hamilton maybe cost him 1 or 2 places on the grid. When you have 5-6 manufacturers in the hunt and the top 12 cars covered by 1 second....his off quali performances are being exasperated.

True, but qualifying doesn't have such a huge importance in those days of DRS and Pirellis. It is possible to make a charge from midfield to the front, if you have the pace and the right strategy. See Perez last Sunday.

[OZ_HCR32]

But you cant be racing back from outside the top 5 every race trying to get onto the podium...first corner arm wrestles in the mid pack etc.

[beau1]

Originally Posted by OZ_HCR32

But you cant be racing back from outside the top 5 every race trying to get onto the podium...first corner arm wrestles in the mid pack etc.

He's going backwards in races though thats the main problem and the strategy from the team like that random pitstop in Canada which made him fall down to 18th makes the situation even more bizarre.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by beau1

Personally, I think Button is driving the worst out of the current WDCs on the grid. It is difficult to pin-point why though but his last two races have been terrible for someone that has a car that should finish in the top 5.

Tyres are the problem here....

[davyboy]

Does anyone know whether his dip in form has coincided with one particular chassis or is it across several chassis ? Not that I doubt McLaren wouldn't have gone to extremes to rule this out, but I wonder whether there's an issue with the chassis he's driving... i.e. a cracked tub or something ? It's unusual to see Jenson so far off his team mate AND not have the slightest idea why.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

Tyres are the problem here....

When interviewed on Sunday, he was asked this and he specifically ruled out tyres as being the issue.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by davyboy

When interviewed on Sunday, he was asked this and he specifically ruled out tyres as being the issue.

I see, okay well thank you for that....

[NPP]

On Autosport, the message was that it isn't _just_ tyres but a combination of setup issues, including tyres, that they struggle to understand. Like davyboy, I was wondering about chassis issues. Or they have done one very silly but hard-to-notice mistake - changed a setting without recording the change, misplaced a decimal point etc. - so that they think they have changed nothing when, in fact they have.

[steve_r]

It is bizarre. He has not always been great in qualifying, but would make up places in the race, but you could tell he was struggling at Canada from the very first lap.

Whatever the problem is, they need to sort it out fast.

[VIVA GT]

Sadly (I say sadly because I like the guy), I think this lack of pace/qualifying speed is starting to do Jenson's head in which is adversely affecting his performance on a Saturday, and a Sunday.
Somehow he needs to put this all aside and just try and concentrate on the job(s) in hand, then, with the help & support of his engineers, he should find out what the problem is.

[GT6]

This is not looking good for Jensen he is now driving worst than Massa and look what everyone is saying is about to happen to him