The curious case of Jenson Button

[CHT]

Lewis contract is up for negotiation.

[PlatinumZealot]

So Jenson can only drive easy cars? He is too lazy to learn to adapt? Or is he just unable to adapt?

If he is so sensitive, then it stands that he cannot filter stimuli and process said stimuli into something that makes sense to him, store it in his memory, decode it then execute it!

His brain cells/muscles are not used to high speed processing of new information. IMO.

[clarkiesyeah]

Are we saying Jenson is thick then? A slow learner to be kinder? Or have we a scenario of "old dog, new tricks"? If this is the case then maybe after a some time to get to grips, we might see Jenson going forwards.

[Red Schneider]

I vote that he is simply a second-tier driver behind the likes of Alonso, Vettel, and Hamilton. People have unreasonably high expectations.

[Lycoming]

I wouldn't say that he can only drive easy cars... rather, he can only drive cars with a very specific setup and feel. What works for him could be hell for another driver. I don't think hes too lazy to adapt. He's an F1 driver which by nature makes him competetive. There's no way he's happy with this situation. If he were able to adapt, he would have done it.

[f1316]

The fact is there are extremely few who can really make the difference, drag an uncompetitive car into competitiveness, and I wouldn't say there's an great evidence that Vettel is one of them either. Alonso has said that Hamilton's the only one in the field that can do that - he's hardly likely to include himself, but I think it's clear it does apply to Alonso too - but Button certainly does not fit into this category.

But what he's doing now is actually slipping behind the performance of the car, rather than simply being outperformed by his team mate. It's not dissimilar from Massa, who has also looked super fast in the past but, at the start of this season, looked lost.

It's clearly something in the setup of the car that has changed since the start of the season, where he beat Hamilton pretty comprehensively in Australia. Whatever updates they have done, and it does seem to conincide precisely with the post-Mugello update, it's upset his feel and Button is not able to compensate for this. It's not that he's "thick" or incapable of learning, rather that his style flows with the car and does not fight it in order to make it do what he wants.

Something like that anyway. I find i've got to the end of this and forgotten my original point...

[clarkiesyeah]

...where he beat Hamilton pretty comprehensively in Australia.

Part of me thinks that was more to do with Lewis taking that first race a little steadier than he needed to, i cant blame him, he clearly wanted to make sure his crash happy days were behind him and just finish the race. So Lewis knows why he got beat by JB in Austrailia, because he allowed it. Contrastingly JB gets beat by Lewis and hasn't a clue why. That must have a psycological effect on the massive ego's of both drivers.

[JimClarkFan]

Everything in this thread said about Jenson would make sense if he had not have won the Australian and came second in China.

Clearly there is something that was added to the car after Mal, or something he has done which is causing trouble. For he and the car at the start of the season where working quite well together, and there is one historical facts that suggests that the problem is mechanical; Jenson has always been possibly the easiest on the tyres of anybody on the grid, in Canada he was the worst on his tyres, and by a long way.

[gato azul]

What kind of electronic trickery that is allowed under the current regs could he be talking about? I heard he'd mentioned it in an interview.

Dunno for sure, it just crossed my mind, that McL is perhaps playing with some form of "artificial steering feedback", similar to what is "en vogue" in some EPS/APS systems in the automotive industry at the moment, to assist there drivers.

These “torque overlays” determine a useful haptic feedback for the driver, recommending specific wheel steer commands suitable for the peculiar dynamic scenario of the vehicle.

some more info about the general topic can be found here

Steering feedback is quite "fickle" and at times hard to "pinpoint", but will have a strong influence on "driver feel & confidence". Some drivers are more sensitive to it then others, see Raikönen/Trulli as examples who require a very specific "feel/feedback" through the steering system to be able to exploit the full potential of the car.

Apart from geometry, (KPI,SAI & caster trail etc), tyres characteristics ( SAT, pneumatic trail etc.) will play into this as well, so perhaps the current generation soft/supersoft Pirelli's augment/play a role in Button's current struggles.
But I seem to remember that he had this kind of "problems" before with different cars/tyres as well.

[marcush.]

in german media word is Mclaren has lost considerable front downforce due to a clarification with their tea tray .which was raising towards the front and allowed much less front rh...

[clarkiesyeah]

If it is loss of downforce he is more screwed than I thought. Considering Canada is quite a low downforce circuit, I would have thought it would be easier to balance the front loss in DF by making the rear wing produce less. Overall no real loss on a circuit like Canada.
Silverstone is gonna be a nightmare worse than montreal for JB, unless Mclaren can find whats been lost in Valencia.

[myurr]

Doesn't feel right - McLaren had a huge rear wing on the car and the front looked planted on circuit, neither of which points to them being down on front end downforce.

[beelsebob]

Doesn't feel right - McLaren had a huge rear wing on the car and the front looked planted on circuit, neither of which points to them being down on front end downforce.

More so, if they were, they could easily just switch back to their low nose, or low nose + snow plough. The car deffinately isn't short on front df.

[myurr]

Doesn't feel right - McLaren had a huge rear wing on the car and the front looked planted on circuit, neither of which points to them being down on front end downforce.

More so, if they were, they could easily just switch back to their low nose, or low nose + snow plough. The car deffinately isn't short on front df.

Also if the t-tray was the issue then they would now be running less rake which would drop rear downforce. That could actually explain the huge wing in Canada (although I still don't think there's a problem), and we know that Hamilton is a lot happier than Button with a car with a loose rear end.

But that wouldn't come close to explaining Button's huge pace issues during the race. Even with new tyres he was unable to get anywhere near Hamilton's pace. His fastest lap was only the 16th fastest and was eight tenths off Lewis's time despite being on similarly aged tyres and fuel load at that point.

[PlatinumZealot]

The car is harder to drive for Jenson? Maybe..

But I am gonna say it is in his head. All of it.

The car is arguable the fastest on the grid. He just can't drive it because of his weak mental state.

Whether he is not an adaptable thinker or whether he is intimidated into docility by the heavy competition, he will never bounce back until he transcends that weak mental cotton ball that Mclaren has wrapped him in over the years.