F1 - Jenson Button"s Move to McLaren
The announcement that Jenson Button has left Brawn GP to sign on with McLaren for the next three years is more than a bit odd and looks all the world like a bad career move for the Brit.
Winning a World Championship in Formula One is supposed to remove any doubt about your credibility as a driver. Alas, this appears to have not been the case with Jenson Button. Dominant at the beginning of the 2009 season, he was regularly outpaced at the end of it by his teammate. Although he was far enough on points to ultimately win the trophy, it was hardly a convincing performance.
Negotiations between a driver and team are also the point of much rumor mongering, almost none of it accurate. What we've seen at Brawn GP in the scant few weeks since the 2009 season ended is rather remarkable. Despite finishing first and third in the driver's championship and first in the constructor's, the team has jettisoned both drivers in exchange for Nico Rosberg and, purportedly, Nick Heidfeld. Rosberg is supposedly talented, but has yet to win a single race. Heidfeld was the number two driver at BMW, which doesn't exactly bring team fans a brace of confidence.
But what of Jenson Button? The switch to McLaren is absolutely baffling for a host of reasons. First, this is a team built around Lewis Hamilton as the number one driver. Hamilton was heavily in favor of bringing back unimpressive Heikki Kovalienen because Lewis likes to be the clear number one. As we saw a few years ago with Alonso, Hamilton does not play well with others of equal talent. He wants to be the number one driver. How, then, will Jenson fit into this?
Making matters worse, McLaren has always been a team that favors a clear number one driver with the number two driver getting treated as a bit of an ugly duckling. I am no Heikki Kovalienen fan, but one can't help but notice the team would have Hamilton light on fuel to challenge for pole position while Heikki had so much fuel on board that getting out of the first qualifying session was often a minor miracle.
Finally, there has been a dearth of attention paid to the fact that Mercedes is leaving McLaren. While this will probably have little effect in the 2010 season, all bets are off after that. McLaren went through long periods of being uncompetitive before it teamed up with Mercedes. At least some drop off in performance is inevitable in the future now that the relationship has been sundered again.
To summaries, Jenson Button is moving to a team where he will have a teammate that does not get along well with other competitive drivers, a team that favors one strong driver and is built around Hamilton and, finally, a team that faces the near future perspective of a drop in performance given the loss of Mercedes support.
One suspects Jenson Button will rue the day he made this choice.
Winning a World Championship in Formula One is supposed to remove any doubt about your credibility as a driver. Alas, this appears to have not been the case with Jenson Button. Dominant at the beginning of the 2009 season, he was regularly outpaced at the end of it by his teammate. Although he was far enough on points to ultimately win the trophy, it was hardly a convincing performance.
Negotiations between a driver and team are also the point of much rumor mongering, almost none of it accurate. What we've seen at Brawn GP in the scant few weeks since the 2009 season ended is rather remarkable. Despite finishing first and third in the driver's championship and first in the constructor's, the team has jettisoned both drivers in exchange for Nico Rosberg and, purportedly, Nick Heidfeld. Rosberg is supposedly talented, but has yet to win a single race. Heidfeld was the number two driver at BMW, which doesn't exactly bring team fans a brace of confidence.
But what of Jenson Button? The switch to McLaren is absolutely baffling for a host of reasons. First, this is a team built around Lewis Hamilton as the number one driver. Hamilton was heavily in favor of bringing back unimpressive Heikki Kovalienen because Lewis likes to be the clear number one. As we saw a few years ago with Alonso, Hamilton does not play well with others of equal talent. He wants to be the number one driver. How, then, will Jenson fit into this?
Making matters worse, McLaren has always been a team that favors a clear number one driver with the number two driver getting treated as a bit of an ugly duckling. I am no Heikki Kovalienen fan, but one can't help but notice the team would have Hamilton light on fuel to challenge for pole position while Heikki had so much fuel on board that getting out of the first qualifying session was often a minor miracle.
Finally, there has been a dearth of attention paid to the fact that Mercedes is leaving McLaren. While this will probably have little effect in the 2010 season, all bets are off after that. McLaren went through long periods of being uncompetitive before it teamed up with Mercedes. At least some drop off in performance is inevitable in the future now that the relationship has been sundered again.
To summaries, Jenson Button is moving to a team where he will have a teammate that does not get along well with other competitive drivers, a team that favors one strong driver and is built around Hamilton and, finally, a team that faces the near future perspective of a drop in performance given the loss of Mercedes support.
One suspects Jenson Button will rue the day he made this choice.
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