Jenson Button and Ferrari - The Possible Situation

Looks like it could be the best of both worlds.

He has a chance to see out his career with McLaren - by no means a bad deal, and he would no doubt end on a high.

Or a move to Ferrari, to replace Massa, playing the perfect challenging second fiddle to Alonso.

Button is in his prime right now, he is driving the best we have ever seen him.


So if he moved to Ferrari, surely, would be the first driver to have driven in all four top teams? Right?

Williams, Benetton, McLaren and then Ferrari?

It's tough. Whilst I'd like to see him go to Ferrari, and win IN a Ferrari (epic awesomeness).

I can't help but think he'd be shooting himself in the foot to leave McLaren, as the Ferrari deal would no doubt only be for a season or two, until Perez is fit for the mould. It'd be like a career shortening move, the only benefit being you get the prestige of being a Ferrari man.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2011 11:43AM by danm.

I thought about this the other day. The thinking was along the same lines of, only top driver to have sat in a Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams, the three most successful teams.

Nigel Mansel put an end to that record though :p. His Mclaren stint was short, but he did drive for all teams when they were still capable of good things.

The hold up of Button's contract is no doubt length. Either Mclaren want him longer than he wants to sign for, or the other way round. He wants a long term deal with security whilst they might have their eyes on Nico/Di Resta/Hulkenburg.

Jenson is driving amazingly brilliant right now, he's still not got the speed of Lewis but Lewis is not living upto his potential. He is making too many mistakes and Jenson really is capitalizing on this. The only thing is, Lewis is bound to get better whilst Jenson wont. He has 2, maybe 3 (at a push) good years left in him. By then any number of drivers would be a suitable, and better replacement.

The way I would want things to pan out is he drives for Mclaren for the 2012 season, and switches for a 2 year deal at Ferrari for 2013 and 2014.

Ideally, my perfect world would see Jenson join Williams in 2012 for 3 years and take 3 WDC's !

I think Jenson, like Jonny Herbert will be one who sticks around go fast cars for a little while. My personal hope is that he tries Le mans, V8's and even NASCAR.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I think Jenson has the consistency to be around for a much longer while yet, if he wants it.

Trouble is, he doesn't need to, and probably doesn't want to. I can't see him doing an Irvine/Herbert/Trulli/Hill and just going on and on until they grind to nothing.

Look how long Trulli has been around - insane, considering how weak he is these days.

A McLaren extension would be a long one, and he'd likely retire on a relatively positive high.

A Ferrari move would shorten his shelf life at the top level I think, and there would be no backing stone to move to - as the other 'top' teams would be filled with the next generation.

The way I see it, its:

McLaren for a long term contract, then retire. No midfield falldown, retire at the top end of things. Like Mika.

or

Ferrari for a few years/short contract, then retire. No midfield filler. Just an end.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Massa is under contract for 2012.

[www.autosport.com]

We all said this when the McLaren rumours surfaced, but signing for Ferrari would be suicide if he's after success.

While Button can capitalise on the mistakes Hamilton seems to make every weekend at the moment, Alonso generally doesn't do mistakes. He's fast, insanely determined and driven and has consistency to go with it. I don't think anyone will argue that since moving to Ferrari he's had the worst of the top three cars in both seasons, yet he's won races in both seasons and got close to winning the title last year. There's no way Button could have lived with that.

I felt Button went to McLaren to prove himself. To show that he could still win in a car that wasn't the outright class of the field - and he's done it too. I think most of us expected Hamilton to trounce him, Hamilton only ironing out the mistakes and immaturity he did have, with Button having a calming influence on some of his controversial antics... yet Hamilton has only become less consistent, and Button has seized the opportunity to be in a rather unique position of being slower than his team-mate, yet arguably the team leader at this moment.

Even if by some miracle the 2nd Ferrari seat became available, he'd be nuts to leave, but if he was leaving for the right reasons (continuing to prove himself against the best, rather than money, or a secret 2nd driver clause or some such nonsense), then the only guy who could suffer would be him, and I'd look forward to see how he'd do in what I still see as the best driver in F1 (though I guess there's only so many Vettel wins you can watch before being forced to change that view).

Do you not think that despite all these wins Seb has much the best car and has since mid way through his first year at Red Bull. If you take his career to now he has had longer in the best car than Hamilton. Alonso has never had clearly the best car. If he was in the Red Bull I would back him to beat Vettel and certainly across a full season.

Alonso had easily the best car at the start of 2005. Proof of this is that Giancarlo was winning too and Giancarlo was never a world class driver.

I can't see Button being able to get those tires heated up properly, he better stay at McLaren

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davidm
Do you not think that despite all these wins Seb has much the best car and has since mid way through his first year at Red Bull.

Yup, but then you look at his ability in the Toro Rosso and how much he is destroying Webber this year.

Don't worry, I'm not about to declare him better than God, but there's only so many dominant wins you can win before you have to start looking at him as at least the level of Alonso. In F1 terms, he's still a kid.

Granted, we all thought Hamilton would end up on some pedestal, but he's doing his best to lose the plot, not the ability. I would give at least two of my limbs to see them head to head in the same car. Fireworks. :D

In my eyes, Alonso has to go down as one of the greats.

I think people overlook how good he actually is - the guy seems to be able to turn his hand and fight with anything he is sat in.

He has won in every car except the 2001 Minardi (debut seasons and a snail of a car); the 2004 Renault (dominant Ferrari year, but he got lots of 3rds, 4ths and 5ths) and 2009 Renault (total junk). And above that, he has been on the podium in all but the Minardi. That string of results is incredible.

So yes, anyone partnering Alonso and beating him deserves a lot of credit. He is a great benchmark to measure against, and I agree, any such move by Button would be brave, if not suicidal.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Best car or not, Seb has beaten every challenge that has been thrown at him, even the dreaded "He can't race, he can only win from the front". When he has a bad weekend it doesn't pile up like it does with Lewis or Webber - he just comes back at the next race and has gotten it together again.

Best car or not, when you actually look at what he's doing in it, it's phenomenal. He's no Senna yet, but I'm beginning to question whether Alonso has been leapfrogged or not yet.

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loque Wrote:
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> Alonso had easily the best car at the start of
> 2005. Proof of this is that Giancarlo was winning
> too and Giancarlo was never a world class driver.

Fisichella only won Melbourne due to the grid being shaken up due to rain in qualifying, not really due to any outright pace.

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X (@ed24f1)

Dave has a good point when you look at it from the angle 'what he has been given, he has taken the maximum from it'. His points tally out of possible points scored shows this to an insane level of reality.

I guess even Schumacher in his heyday didn't match that, best car or not.

This is a new chapter being made. We should just embrace the moment really, and in xxx year, we can do the maths and work out what if and what not.

Right now, this is something very special indeed.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

What has made Seb's year so special is that for a number of races he has not had the fastest car, he's just driven perfectly.

he has had one bad race whereas you look at Lewis, Button, Alonso and Webber and they have had multiple bad races. Even if the RedBull wasnt the best or a top car, he would still be leading because he has been completely mistake free. Newey's comments regarding Vettel never making the same mistake twice, I took that as a little punch at Lewis. But he is right. Vettel cleared all his mistakes through 2009, and 2010.

As a driver you can see how much he has improved from 2009. And right now, in relation to the competition the 2011 RBR is no quicker than the 2009 RBR. It's just Vettel is getting the job done.

Monza is a perfect example. If Button had the start he needed then he would have challenged for the win. He would not have won, but he would have given Vettel a hard time. Instead aside from a trip along the grass, Vettel had a relaxing drive through some forest in the north or Italy!!

On track he has made a single mistake when its mattered. Nobody can compete with that.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Sorry if i've not been watching the season properly, but the redbull car has been by far the fastest car this season, just like the previous 1 and a half seasons, just they've fixed pretty much all the reliability problems.

The 2009 RBR was the quickest car (along with Mclaren) by the end of the year, its just they didn't start with the double diffuser.

I do agree that Vettel is driving is driving to perfection, to my annoyance haha.

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I think the Mclaren has been more than a match for the RBR than has shown. It's just both Mclaren driver's have failed to capitalize on this, due to driver errors and strategy errors.

In every department RedBull have beat Ferrari and Mclaren hands down. Pit stops, strategy, and driver! Webber has had an awful season with only few highlights, seems like he is going the Massa route !

IMO as we stand now the differences in pace vary little from last year. And the advantage RBR have over the next placed car is no different to 2009 or 2010. At the season start, sure it was a great deal but it soon changed. I just think Vettel is making the car look more dominant that it is, purely down to the fact that everything has gone right this year. And it sure as hell makes up for last season. RBR as a team have rounded off them sharp edges, aswell as Vettel.

To keep it on topic, on Webber and Massa. Last season Webber was closer to Vettel than Button closer to Lewis, and likewise Massa was closer to Alonso than he has been this year. Button has been the only guy team mated to a top driver who has improved his position. Last season Button was constantly the 5th driver. Behind both RBR's, Lewis and Alonso and only just beating Massa. In qualifying it was a dead cert he would either be nowhere, or sit happily behind this bunch. This year however he is a genuine threat to seal 2nd in the championship. I know in the end it is meaningless but it does show he has raised his game somewhat. Aided by the fact that Lewis has c*cked up more than he should have. But thats not to take anything away from Jenson, because he clearly is a better driver now than he was last season.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I'd imagine Jenson is committed to McLaren long-term. He's on fire at the moment in every way - surely he realises he'd be crazy to @#$%& things up for himself at this stage by joining a different team. He's had enough seasons in bad cars and enough near-misses of top teams(Leaving Williams just before they started winning, then leaving Renault just before they started winning) to know better.

For me it's clear that Vettel is the most naturally gifted driver out there, closely followed on that score by Alonso with Fernando still being the most complete top driver, at least till Vettel gains more experience.

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11+ years supporting that dude are finally paying off!!

i've been a Jenson fan for a while now, he's such a great driver, i remember how everybody was writting him off when he joined Villeneuve in BAR, in Montoya's words, Button was "making the mistake of his carreer, Villeneuve was going to destroy him".... the truth was, he ended Villeneuve's carrer right there, reducing him from a highly paid driver to uninportant!.. couple of years after and then he was out of a seat, came in the best car and was 100% effective winning without a doubt every race that car should've won...

even since 2003 you could see him that in complicated races, with rain and stuff he had a special talent

then he moved from the car where he won the championship to Mclaren with a driver highly rated driver by everybody (again).. it was going to be hard, after being 7 years in the same team, but he went for it despite recieving criticism from everybody, and again emulating the same "he's going to get trashed" comments from a few years he proved everybody wrong... look at him now... he's flying, he looks impressively comfortable in that car he's got a secure future (in Macca they love him) and he's still improving race after race you can see it... as Chet says, last year he was weak in qualy pace, but equally quick or sometimes even faster in race pace than his teammate, and now he's very often emulating Hamilton's laptimes in qualy and quicker in races.. i can definitely see him next year ahead of Hamilton consistently

so yeah, i see Jenson ending his F1 carrer in Mclaren... i'm tifosi by nature, by blood, and having Jenson in Ferrari winning races would be like a dream team, but i don't think he's in a position to go for another big change in his carrer, he made a trick move by leaving Brawn, but it has paid off massively, but nothing guarantees that a nother move to another top team would be as armonious...

Ferrari has an army of drivers, and Jenson is very smart, he knows it.. if he wins another championship he'll retire, if not, i see 5 more years of Jenson in Mclaren



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2011 08:54AM by Slash.

I just don't see it happening from either party's side, he's fine in Macca and Ferrari has a vast pool of promising young drivers to choose from to accompany Alonso. Button's found brilliant form and confidence as well, I guess. I'm not a fan of any particular driver but I'd definitely like to see him fighting for (and winning) another driver's title. For some reason I see Hamilton taking a leave before Button tbh.

I don't see Button ever going to Ferrari, partly because Ferrari is now firmly Alonso's team.

However having said that, Mclaren was supposed to be Hamilton's team. We all pretty much expected Hamilton to utterly dominate Button, because if he could manage Alonso when team mates in his rookie season, then surely Button wouldn't even be a blip on his radar.

Overall, you'd still say that Hamilton is the McLaren driver you look towards to get the ultimate results, but Button has been very clever. He's taken his experience and used his confidence gained by winning the Championship with Brawn and made McLaren his team just as much as it has been Hamilton's without actually taking it away from him.

I think he's clever enough to know that on pure sheer pace Hamilton is always going to be ahead. But whilst Hamilton is younger and still lacks the experience and ultimately the maturity of Button, We'll still have days when Button humbles Hamilton and for the meantime he'll be on a level in terms of championship position/significance.

Though I do see Hamilton gradually exerting his authority over the years as he grows up a bit :P

To my mind, Button to Hamilton is like Prost was to Senna, ultimately slower and not quite as good, but experienced and clever enough to make a fight out of it. Thankfully it does seem to lack the polictics and open public psychological warfare though.