Midseason Review: Grading McLaren’s Jenson Button

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: August 8, 2013

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I’ve always had a soft spot for Jenson Button. He was my first ever Formula One interviewee when I made my first tentative steps into F1 journalism as a fresh-faced deputy editor of the BMW Williams team website way back in 2000.

I've followed his career closely since then and was delighted when he became world champion with Brawn GP in 2009. Since winning that life-changing title, Button has enjoyed three relatively successful seasons for new employees McLaren, even finishing second behind Sebastian in 2011. But after the red herring that was an encouraging preseason testing, things have sadly been a real struggle so far for Button in 2013 and he’s not always seeing eye-to-eye with his feisty young teammate Sergio Perez.

Having won the Australian Grand Prix on three separate occasions, the season opener was a worrisome sign of things to come with Button qualifying 10th and finishing ninth. Malaysia offered a two-place improvement in qualifying pace and Button looked set for a solid points finish, but a problem in the pits saw his front left tyre incorrectly fitted, leading to extreme vibrations that ended his chances.

If fifth is where Button should have finished in Malaysia, fifth is what he achieved in China on a two-stop strategy having actually led the race for a number of laps. But race strategy dictated Button nurse his tyres instead of fighting for position, a factor that Button found frustrating as quoted by ESPNF1 in his post-race team interview.

The cars were so much quicker than me and there was no point racing because it would have destroyed our strategy. One lock-up, one trip over the marbles and the tyres would have been gone so our strategy wouldn't have worked and it was a very tight strategy.  We had to be careful, we had to be clever and intelligent and I think as a team we did that today. It was so difficult, I would radio in and say "Can I fight them?" They'd come back and sa...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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