And all of this diffusers stuff impacts Button how?

Look F1 is all about chassis and engine. Every year the chassis designers look at the rules to figure out how to make the car the fastest. It is their job to push the boundries. Just because Brawn figured it out before most other team is not thier fault. Heck when the FIA looked at it they say it was legal. Loop hole or not Brawn found some and used to to full effect. It has taken all year for the other teams to catch up. At the start of the season Button was untouchable. Even compared to Rubens he was faster except for 1 race. Of course it has been hard single the middle of the season.


Now if Button wins it great. He did exactly what was expected of him in that he took a good car and won races. No not just winning, but dominating. Now that the competition has caught up he is having a hard time. Well so be it. Button is not a superior driver, but strong driver. He is deserving to win the WDC if he scores the points. As for Hamilton... he was dropped in fast car and told to go. Still choaked once and nearly choaked a second time. This year he went from no where to decient while being backed by the one of the largest and most experiened F1 teams.

Greatness is not eared in 1 season. Championships ARE eared in 1 season and forumula is very simple. Gather more points that any other single person over a season's worth of races. You do that and you are a WDC.

 

As it relates to Hamilton, he was praised so early on because as a rookie, he went toe to toe with a 2 time World Champion in the same car. Neither Lewis nor Alonso had been in the McLaren so neither had an advantage over the other. There is speculation that Alonso was better at set up than Hamilton and Lewis benefited from shared data, but in hindsight, we all know that Alonso was working off of stolen Ferrari data.

The added fact that Hamilton was groomed from an early age in karting to be in F1 was something that was never done and the "experiment" was working brilliantly.

No one was more of a Hamilton supporter than me... initially. Where Hamilton lost me was when he stopped being humble and began to believe his press clippings and began to compare himself to the likes of Senna!!! If your going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk and when, as you say, he beached his car in China and stalled the car in Brazil, he showed that he is not Senna like.

Fast forward to 2008 and again he continued with comparing himself to Senna in the rain, etc. only to have a brain fade and crash out in the rain in a later race. Again, as you eluded to, he had to keep Vettel behind him and only come in 6th or 7th place, in the rain at Interlagos last year to win the WDC and couldn't do it. Not very Senna like.

This year, Lewis has been humbled by the car and is showing signs of a maturing driver that knows that he is not the end all. He still has major brain fade like crashing out by himself on the last lap at Monza, but they are far less than his first 2 years.

Fast forward to Jensen. He's always been a journeyman in average equipment for the most part. Give him credit for scoring as many points as he did early on, but 1 or 2 were team orders.

IMHO, where people lose respect for Button is the fact that he is not only losing out to other teams who have caught up in terms of car performance, but he is being out qualified and out raced by his teammate! The first rule of F1 is that you must beat your teammate and he can't even do that. This is the biggest factor I believe. What is lost is that Button came in 2nd at Monza, but Rubens was 1st and convincingly.

It appears to me, anyway, that he is not nursing his lead to the finish, but rather trying his hardest and still not coming up with the results he needs to finish strong.

 

My understanding is that several teams dreamed up the diffuser. McLaren and Ferrari went to FIA and asked if they could use it. They were told NO. Brawn and RedBull did not ask and used it anyway. McLaren and Ferrari cried foul, and FIA reviewed; several races later FIA says the diffuser is OK. So now some teams have capitalized on the technology while others play catchup. That's my beef with the issue. FWIW, as I mentioned before, I think FIA (or any sanctioning body) should announce dissapproval of requested changes to ALL teams.

 

You're absolutely right about Alonso milking his lead in both of his WDC seasons. He gained a big lead, often when Kimi would lose a wing in front of him or something (Wayne thinks this never happened though) so in that sense Button is doing his very similarly.

Difference is though that Alonso always took it easy, yet still was close to the front where as Button has screwed up couple of times pretty bad and has also been slow on more occasions than one.

Button's problem when compared to Barichello are the brakes. When Brawn changed their brake material at Silverstone (and have used that ever since), it benefited Barichello while doing the opposite for Button because now the brakes get up to temperature much quicker which was giving Barichello problems in the beginning.

I'm not a big fan of Hamilton & Button but Hamilton IMO is a better drover. Barichello have been kicking Button's *** ever since the brake change and as much as I personally like him, it's not like Barichello is the greatest driver out there.

 

The moral of the story is "Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission".

 

because Button belongs in nascar - the refuge for semi-talented over-the-hill drivers.

 

..

 

In F1 yes... In other series... not so.

Also don't discount that since Brawn created something tangible and was "legal" per the rules despite being outside the intent. Who knows if the other teams presented was not legal to the letter of the rule because of a few very particular details. So they present a "paper version" and the FIA says no. However after Brawn makes thier real life version FIA says ok. Maybe the paper was harder to grasp or not quite right.

Bottomline is Brawn got it right and took advantage. They could have been told no.. take it off, but apprently knew the rules better than the rules makers.

 

The 2009 rules fiasco was just that, and basically undermined the 2009 WDC.

Starting the first GP with two groups of cars, one designed to the rules as confirmed by Charlie Whiting's gnomes [no, you may NOT use a double diffuser], and one that just went ahead and added a double diffuser. The advantage was obvious from the very beginning, and for the FIA to then announce that the specific element they has denied to any team that asked was now 'legal' was a travesty. The first 6 GPs were run under these conditions. Lets not forget that.

As for the JB vs LH question, they are both bloody good drivers.
LH showed some unmistakable brilliance in 2008. His willingness to press passing moves and make them stick, and his master class on severe wet weather racing in Suzuka are a couple of examples.
JB's true abilities didn't show up until this season. He clearly had a better car thanks to the rules fiasco, but his driving was impossibly smooth and quick. Give him his due; he squeezed all the juice out of the Brawn without putting a foot wrong.

Both guys, and Vettel, are potential WDC winners IMHO.

 

PMed you

 

Oh boy. I hear wanna911 coming out of the woodwork....