The Official 2009 Japanese Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

If you compare last year's championship to this years championship then you will realise that the field is so much closer this year. Who would of thought Force India would get a pole position and nearly win a race. Last year the Mclaren's & Ferrari's in qualifying were able to just do the 1 run and get a ime and they would be safe. That isn't happening this year so therefore Jenson isn't having it easy. The KERS is also something to consider with qualifying as teams are having to think about their strategies with fuel in qualifying 3. It is so unpredictable at the moment that it is hard for everyone to get the perfect weekend. Its exciting for us the fans too. Jenson has got more wins this season than Lewis did last season and has only had 1 retirement so i don't think it is right for people to criticize Jenson.

b-tone Wrote:
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> don't know if its been mentioned but i think on
> buttons radio (when he was behind kov and sutil)
> his man said something like "would it be easier if
> someone in front wasn't there" and not long after
> kov and sutil tangled and let button through.
> aren't they all mercedes powered?

Just, no.

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b-tone Wrote:
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> don't know if its been mentioned but i think on
> buttons radio (when he was behind kov and sutil)
> his man said something like "would it be easier if
> someone in front wasn't there" and not long after
> kov and sutil tangled and let button through.
> aren't they all mercedes powered?


the conversation went as follows,

button complaining that he couldn't keep up with the force india on the straights and was suffering with understeer in the corners.

Andrew Shovlin then asked him if he'd be able to pass heikki if Sutil wasn't there. (as he was due to pit within the next few laps with heikki running longer)

button then replied, 'i think so'

no conspiracy, just heikki not engaging his brain.

It is almost like saying "do you think you can win if the 9 cars infront were not there"

"I think so"

Quite funny that Button couldn't pass a Force India, but thinks he could get past a KERS car.

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That Kovy-Sutil tangle was definitely a let-off for JB, although not much of one considering he only ended up scoring a single point, and Rubens only managed a P7 anyway.

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Dear Chetson, Jenson got super lucky in Singapore with penalties and caution periods. In Suzuka he was given 3 spots for doing nothing. Jenson was super consistant early in the season not making mistakes and his drive early on is making up for average/below average performances of late, luck being completely unrelated to it.

I wish the FIA had made up somehow to Vettel, maybe allow him one extra engine without penalty since he got screwed royally in Singapore despite being innocent. Imagine if he is the one fighting for the title and loses it by 3 points?

Edit: Kovalainen-Sutil crash was a racing accident. Though Heikki should learn to go wheel-to-wheel without taking people out, I feel Sutil pushed it way too much by giving him no room to move inside more. Of course one could argue Heikki should have slowed down since he lost the position... but he still forced it too much. He lost his position fair and square, he can't just maintain a higher speed and claim Sutil should have let him back.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2009 06:08PM by Guimengo.

Gui, there was nothing lucky about the saftey car in Singapore for Jenson. It ruined his strategy.

In suzuka, after qualifying his penalty effected himself more than Rubens... He lost 3 to Barachello's 1 spot!!!! Okay because Kova cant race he was given the posistions, but thats not luck, thats racing. He was on for beating Nico, and maybe Rubens until the saftey car at Suzuka... Once again saftey car ruins strategy. Rubens way out ahead of him and yet still Button was able to see his rear wing, even before the saftey car, despite all the clear air Rubens had!

He massivley out performed Rubens at Singapore and was quicker at Suzuka where in both cases Rubens was quite slow. Taking Ruben's performance as a gauge Button has not under-performed. He has failed to qualify well, but he has not under-performed when it mattered.

Sure, if Rubens was finishing 3rd, 4th or even 5th then you could say Buttons done terrible, but both drivers have been in similar posistions.

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

Agree to disagree there

So qualifying no longer matters?

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Disagree Chet regarding the final pitstops scenario. Jenson wasn't denied a chance to pass Rubens, he was still 5-6 seconds behind him after the final stops, and Jenson was lapping faster, but not enough to be a real threat to Rubens. He might or might not have caught him before the end without an SC, but I'd say it's doubtful. So it could even be argued that the SC helped Jenson in relation to Rubens.
Whether Nico would have come out of the pits in front of both Brawns or not is touch and go, but there's no reason why he couldn't have.


chet Wrote:
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> Sure, if Rubens was finishing 3rd, 4th or even 5th
> then you could say Buttons done terrible, but both
> drivers have been in similar posistions.

So it's not possible that both drivers under-performed?

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chet Wrote:
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> He has failed to qualify well, but he has not
> under-performed when it mattered.

If he manages to lose it (OK, it's very unlikely), then he's been under-performing for half a season.

He's had no mechanical problems at all, whereas his competitors have had all manner of bad luck regarding engines or poor starts (of which they're presumably half responsible, but still).

Given all the problems the other drivers have had, it's under-performing that he hasn't wrapped it up long before now.

I think somebody must have been reading our posts...

[en.f1-live.com]

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Quite funny that Button couldn't pass a Force
> India, but thinks he could get past a KERS car.


Force India is not KERS equipped either, is it?
Sutil was faster than Heikke and Jenson, imho Jenson can pass a slower car better than Sutil, he gets them out of the way pretty quickly.

and yeah i agree, Jenson should've had this championship long time ago, at least by Singapore

he needs to get that "playing it safe" mentality for qualys and get that thing up there, otherwise he might need to play agressive in Abu Dhabi and end up with nothing

Although I agree with you guys, I think the Brawn car isn't helping much. If it were only down to Jenson, I think Rubens would be doing a lot better, and he isn't. I think it all depends on Interlagos. If Brawn runs decently there, then the championship will possibly be over.

I'm rooting for Vettel to be honest. Would be nice to see him win the last two races to become world champion

It'd be an awesome final twist to the season if Vettel did a Kimi, but I don't think the RedBull is a consistent enough package to allow that to happen. Especially when you consider that Abu Dhabi will be a similar layout to Valencia and Singapore.

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tripleM Wrote:
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> So qualifying no longer matters?


I'm not talking about qualifying, I am saying I disagree with Chet's points in reply to mine, nothing about additional information. Quali always matters.

marwood82 Wrote:
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> the conversation went as follows,
>
> button complaining that he couldn't keep up with
> the force india on the straights and was suffering
> with understeer in the corners.
>
> Andrew Shovlin then asked him if he'd be able to
> pass heikki if Sutil wasn't there. (as he was due
> to pit within the next few laps with heikki
> running longer)
>
> button then replied, 'i think so'
>
> no conspiracy, just heikki not engaging his brain.

ok, i didn't watch too closely but the words they used sounded odd. not 'sutil is pitting soon' but 'what if one of the cars wasn't there' as if he had the power to make a car not there.

____
Tony

Sutil was the lightest of the trio by a good margin. So I think they were planning ahead for when Sutil make his stop, to tell Jenson to push and pass Heikki. At least, that was what I thought when I heard the transmission.

"I'm not talking about qualifying, I am saying I disagree with Chet's points in reply to mine, nothing about additional information. Quali always matters."

"He has failed to qualify well, but he has not under-performed when it mattered."

"So qualifying no longer matters?"

my fault for not using the quote button

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