Button denies braking early in Vettel crash

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Jenson Button has denied he braked early for the Bus Stop chicane in the Belgian Grand Prix, causing Sebastian Vettel to crash.

Writing on his official website Button said:

No, absolutely not. Obviously, I?éÔÇÖ’d lost the floor-plate of one of my front wing endplates ?éÔÇôand that was affecting the car?éÔÇÖs balance ?éÔÇô but I didn’?éÔÇÖt brake any earlier for the Bus Stop on the lap of the crash.

I’?éÔÇÖd had to crank more front wing in to help the handling, and that had made the back-end a bit more skittish, so I was just driving carefully. I knew I still had good straight-line speed, so I was concentrating on getting into the slower corners cleanly, so that I could maximise my traction at the exit and maintain the gap along the straights. But that?éÔÇÖ’s just common sense when you?éÔÇÖre racing.

After the race, I actually checked the data with my race engineer, and it shows that I braked at exactly the same point on the lap before the collision. We even looked at the braking profile, and that also showed that, at the point of impact?éÔÇô about 1.5s after I?éÔÇÖ’d started applying the brakes ?éÔÇôI’?éÔÇÖd travelled exactly the same distance on both laps. So to suggest I’?éÔÇÖd braked earlier wouldn?éÔÇÖ’t be accurate.
Jenson Button

Button called the crash “completely unnecessary” and admitted he is increasingly concerned about his championship situation:

My thoughts haven?éÔÇÖt really changed, to be honest. At the time, I was pretty confused by what Sebastian did. Now, I still think what he did was completely unnecessary ?éÔÇôhe didn?éÔÇÖ’t need to pass me at that point, and I wasn’?éÔÇÖt making his life difficult, so his car shouldn?éÔÇÖ’t have been on such a knife-edge when he hit me.

What?éÔÇÖ’s most frustrating is that I?éÔÇÖ’ve lost out on a good handful of championship points at a time when neither Sebastian or Fernando were able to score. I know there are 150 points still up for grabs, but it doesn’?éÔÇÖt help to now be 35 points behind Lewis.

On a more positive note, under the old points system, that would still only be about 15 points, so anything?éÔÇÖ’s still possible. But at this point in the season, you?éÔÇÖ’ve got to take every point you can?éÔÇô and the incident in Spa certainly didn?éÔÇÖ’t help.
Jenson Button

Button believes he would have finished on the podium despite his front wing problem had Vettel not taken him out:

I was in second place. Okay, you could say it wasn’?éÔÇÖt a comfortable second because I had the slight issue with the endplate, which was slowing me down, but you look at the results and two cars that were running behind me before I retired both finished on the podium. So I think it?éÔÇÖs realistic to say that I could have been on the podium on Sunday.

And I knew I would have been strong in the closing laps of the race, too. We had a car that was working perfectly in the greasy conditions, and I think I would only have been stronger when the rain started to fall again. So it?éÔÇÖ’s a missed opportunity.
Jenson Button

2010 Belgian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    81 comments on “Button denies braking early in Vettel crash”

    1. Feel bad for Jenson, he really had a good chance of catching Lewis in the final stint, given his car was setup primarily for the wetter conditions rather than the dry. When Lewis made his error at Rivage, had Button been there, who knows.. but 35 points now realistically puts him into the “2nd driver” support position, even if Whitmarsh et al refuse to say so. Even Jenson knows this.

      I was particularly impressed with his response to this. No shouting and throwing toys out of prams (like, cough cough – vettel in turkey) again showing what a true sportsman he is and deserving world champion.

      Yes Lewis was pulling away, but Pewis wasn’t carrying damage, it’s all about the full 44 laps, not just the tearaway start, we’ll never know what would have happened if vettel had used his brain instead of his testicles when trying to pass the Mclaren.

      1. lol “Pewis” was not intended hehe – i meant “Lewis”

        1. “we’ll never know what would have happened if vettel had used his brain instead of his testicles when trying to pass the Mclaren.”

          This gave me a good chuckle. COTD

      2. Good point – hadn’t thought of the fact that Jenson would have perhaps been in the lead after Hamilton went off at Rivage.

        They did say that they would change the wing at the first stop though, this would have taken a bit of time and he would have most probably ended up behind Kubica and possibly Mark.

        I also think that had Button qualified 2nd and not Hamilton, there would have been less chance of having an accident with another car, and so he put himself in a worse position than Hamilton at the start in a sense.

        Either way, Jenson has not disgraced himself this season. He seems to know that his standing has actually gone up this year and as such he’s more relaxed about things.

    2. i saw this in Pitpass, and have not found any discussions of it elsewhere, but there it is mentioned that the video of Vettel catching Button shows how the RBR front wing not only lowers at speed, but twists up and down each side as the car changes direction… possibly explaining why he lost control so suddenly when trying to take the wider line.

      Anyone else notice this?? Video is on BBC F1 site, about 1-2 minutes long. With this in mind, is it not time to outlaw this, make the tests actually suitable to providing the regulation intended? If the loadtest is 500NM, but regularly in the race the wings sustain loads of 2000NM or more, then clearly the test falls way short of ensuring the wings don’t flex. Even 1000NM and 20mm, still half the load that is actually applied in hot-lap conditions

      1. It was mentioned here in the race reviews on Monday. In fact the article is still on the front page:

        https://www.racefans.net/2010/08/30/damage-limitation-for-webber-but-not-vettel-red-bull-race-review/

        1. aha! sorry, i don’t read those team by team analyses, find them a bit long in the tooth for my purposes, but i shall reconsider this opinion… cheers keith ;)

      2. Politics. They will say anything to get those wings banned.

        1. The amount of flexing that wing was doing behind the McLaren, and more to the point, the violent shearing it was doing, points to a major instability, and a safety issue.

          If the wings are flexing like that when following a car, and that has contributed (at the very least) to RB drivers losing control at Canada and Spa, with the potentially deadly results thereof, then there’s a very good case to be made for finding out whatever RB are doing and banning it.

          Ground effect was banned exactly because loss of stability was causing crashes.

          1. Ground effect has never been banned. In fact all current cars gain most of their downforce from ground effect. Skirts were banned initialy and then later full length venturies were banned by the intoduction of the flat floor. They were banned to reduce cornering speeds which at the time were considered too high. Even without these modern race cars produce huge amounts of grip from the ground effect of air flowing under the car.

            But I do agree that the huge fluttering in the RB wing can’t have given consistent grip and must be causing instability.

            1. Hey Jim,

              I am not an aero-expert. Can you help me understand how the cars produce ground-effect downforce, even with a flat floor?

            2. MinusTwo – if the floor was all flat and always parralel to the road you probably couldn’t generate ground effect. But its only flat between the wheels. The front wings and particularly the rear diffuser combine with the flat floor to make up a venturi generating ground effect.

            3. MinusTwo – Although not an F1 car this link gives a nice explanation of how the lead in and adding a diffuser to a flat floor generates ground effect.

              http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/misc/aero/Europa%20Aerodynamics.htm

            4. Hey Jim – Thanks a million for the explanation, and the link. Much appreciated. It’s knowledgeable guys like you that make this site so informative.

    3. I am still very much impressed with Button after his championship year. He is driving very consistently and brings the points home if he can.
      I also believe he would have been on the podium, maybe even on the top step in Spa (he might have got in front of Lewis due to the off track moment).

      As he does, i feel this might be the end of his championship defence, unless he miraculously wins in Singapore, Interlagos and/or Korea while the other contenders fail to score several times.

      But his response is very good. No shouting, bad language etc. Just showing he looked at what happended and weather his car/driving might have been of influence in the accident.

      1. Kubica and Webber (much) were faster than Button. It’s ratehr unlikely that Button would have been closer to Hamilton (when he had his off) than Kubica was.

        1. You forget that Button was dealing with a damaged front wing throughout the first stint. Who knows what his pace might have been like after a front wing change.

          1. True, but then you forget that if Button would have changed his front wing, the resulting time loss would have put him behind the whole lot of them.

            But indeed I seriously doubt whether Button’s front wing damage was such a big deal. He wasn’t near the pace of Hamilton (and Webber and Kubica) all weekend.

        2. When Jenson went off track (along with pretty much everyone else) he took a long route back onto the circuit so as not to ‘cut the corner’. He was the only driver to do this and lost 2 places as a result. I presume he was doing this to ensure that he didn’t get a penalty. As it happens he then overtook those 2 cars to get back into second place. Impressive. No penalties were then issued to the drivers who ‘cut the corner’. Jenson may well have been leading comfortably if they had.

      2. And a fact that people tend to forget is that the car Jenson has achieved what he has so far this year after moving to a new team & while driving a car that was not conceived with him in mind at all. I think we will get a much better take on things next year when he has had some input into the car.

        1. I really doubt that Jenson can improve on his 2010 performance. I think Jenson has clearly outperformed his usual standards this year. With the exception of Monaco and Spa, he has been phenomenally lucky. He has never looked like he has had the pace to win a race this year, and yet he managed to win two races on lucky calls.

          No matter how much the car is designed around him, he will never be as fast as Lewis, Robert, Fernando, Sebastian and Mark. At the end of the day, he is a a tortoise, and for him to be 4th in the championship right now is probably he best he can do.

      3. “maybe even on the top step in Spa (he might have got in front of Lewis due to the off track moment)”
        why do people keep saying this? things might have turned up quite differently if he had continued shadowing Hamilton, hek who knows he might even have been wrongfooted and got into the gravel himself…

        1. Or a budgie got stuck in his cockpit… and that would lead to all types of problems…

          I guess we’ll never know :C

    4. Jense was unlucky, Seb lost his head and rammed into him. However, recent comments made seem to indicate he might be getting increasingly annoyed that Lewis is finding much more success mid to late season in the McLaren than he seems to be having, a downturn from early in the season.

      Take his comments about the potential of the team to shift their focus to bolster Lewis’s championship stretch fight…A bit unnecessary in my opinion, comes off as defiant and unneeded at this point. He’s neither faster nor better than his teammate, and at this point he should be preparing to do his part in helping said teammate achieve what will be best for the team.

      1. Button has the champion’s mentality, which is not to defer and lie down for your team-mate at the earliest opportunity (a la Massa). His luck was out at Spa and it puts him in a difficult position. But I think it’s entirely right and fair that McLaren allow him a couple of races to fight back against his bad luck before nominating Hamilton as their title contender.

      2. True, but the special thing about Button is that he is the reigning Champion. I think he should be entitled to defend his crown till the end.

        1. Entitled? Jenson is entitled to the same equipment (and gets it) hence the same chance to win – Lewis blew him away on Sat which gave him the best chance to win. If Jenson picks up his Q3 pace (the only place i think Lewis out-performs him IMO) he’d be in a better position.

    5. yes i brought it up yesterday craig after reading about it on James Allens blog. Theres definitely something happening, maybe Keith is still pondering it because i think its absolutely massive as a story. If the wings are throwing the car around as they bob in and out of wakes then a ban, or change in the testing will swiftly follow.

      1. Apparently we’ve seen flexing from different cars down the years.

        But the fact that these wings are designed to flex certainly make sit an issue.

      2. its the violent left-right-left twisting that worries me, which if in turn does affect raw downforce across the front of the car, would certainly explain why the red bull’s overtaking manouvres nearly always go wrong.

        Compared to how many successful passes that McLaren/Mercedes/Renault/Force India have acheived this year, what percentage of RBR’s overtakes have been without incident? They’re fine from the front, but they can’t overtake for sh&t

        1. Don’t forget the RB6 is usually very slow in a straight line. In Hungary they were ~11 kph slower on the straight. That makes overtaking even harder.

      3. maybe Keith is still pondering it because i think its absolutely massive as a story

        As I said, I mentioned it on Monday here:

        https://www.racefans.net/2010/08/30/damage-limitation-for-webber-but-not-vettel-red-bull-race-review/

    6. It reminds me a bit of last year at RB, Vettel was ahead of Webber mainly because of poor results by Webber in the late summer, Vettel was subsequently considered better than his team mate and a favorite for 2010, the judgment is not so clear now. Button might take the upper hand on Hamilton this season or an other.
      I still consider Vettel and Hamilton potentially faster on a one lap stint than their team mates, but we all know it takes a bit more than that to be champion and chance is definitely a part of the equation.

      1. Webber was losing out to Vettel at the beginning of the 2009 season. When his leg had healed, it was actually Webber who was ahead of Vettel in the championship standings.

        Indeed that lasted on a few races though.

        But then of course when Kubica rammed into Webber in Italy, his brakes failed in Singapore and he had a boatload of problems in Japan, Vettel got pretty far ahead again.

    7. Even if he doesn’t finish WDC (which seems pretty likely at this point) Button can hold his head high having confounded almost everyone’s expectations. I doubt there will be many people saying the same thing about Sebastian Vettel, who might’ve been known as the German who rams people off the road if that name hadn’t already been taken.

      1. Except the person who supposedly holds that title actually knows how to overtake and win a WDC.

        1. And in that particular German’s case, it was hardly lack of skill that lead to him ploughing people off the road.

    8. sorry times two

    9. Did any of you guys ever watch racing before? What happened was obvious; when you are so slow that you gather a train behind you people will try harder and harder to pass. The track was damp/wet and as Seb said he hit the bump that was very visible at that part of the track. All Seb can be accused of is racing and the coment: “I was just driving carefully” pretty much sums up Jenson in my book! Imagine 24 “Jensons” sneaking around track, trying not to get in trouble. EXITING!

      1. What he can be accused of, is failing to overtake a rival properly by say, crashing directly into them once again. Imagine 24 Lewis Hamiltons, or Fernando Alonsos (when he’s not complaining or driving as poorly as on Sunday), very “EXITING” as you put it, and still not as error prone when racing as Vettel.

    10. I am not a Button fan by any means, I’m an Alonso fan, but i felt sorry for Button and if one man could be ruled out of the title right now, I would want it to be Vettel.

    11. @daykind: Seriously? Please think twice! Ruling out race drivers for doing what racing is all about? This is going way too far! Keep in mind that Jenson could not at all keep pace for crying out loud!

      1. Racing isn’t about a repeated failure to overtake properly.

      2. It really amazes me how many people forget that the reason for that is because his car was damaged! Bare in mind he started 5th, got up to 3rd, went back to 5th again during the carnage at the bus stop then got back to 2nd. Doesn’t sound like he wasn’t racing to me!

        1. well said… this was possibly Jenson’s finest drive so far this season, and i for one really think that it would have been close right to the end once they replaced his front wing during safety car/tyre change periods

    12. Take a look here, i have look at the wings of the MP4-25 in the lasts races and I see a detail. Keith, its a good link for tomorrow!

      The invincible “flex(?)” wing of Lewis at Spa- Technical analysis

      http://wp.me/pKzhf-ST

      Thanks.

      1. Er, isn’t that just the suspension loaded up on one side as the car corners.

        We need to see the wing flex relative to the chassis, not the ground.

        1. You’re exactly right! There is barely – if any at all – deflection at all relative to the chassis.

      2. Who cares, when you decided to keep it from the rest of the world, by posting it in Portuguese?

      3. Are you kidding us? Come on man how do these imges show a flexing wing?

        Seriously, one of these images has a wheel lifted of the ground. How on earth can you expect a wing to stay level if one wheel is off? or for that matter when one wheel is compressed and the other unloaded.

        If anything it shows that even under the incredible stress that Hamilton is putting the car under, the wing is still perfeclty straight relative to the car.

        1. Patrickl

          Like I said, you misunderstood the message of the text.

          the images are to show THE DIFFERENCE ON THE WINGS OF LEWIS AND JENSON, and they produced the time difference, something around 0.7 Button slower.

          This wing of Lewis in Spa was of he used on Turkey, which he chose because it has tested three different types. Button chose the new, but it does not appear effect as expected.

          What I deduce is that the wing lewis used is 0.3 faster than Red Bull.

          On the “flexible”, I wrote because Horner had said something about the wing of the MP4-25 at Spa, but he was wrong, and that’s what I meant to you.

          I think the language few understood, the next text I will try to write in English.

          But try to translate at the translator and you’ll see that I didn’t say that these images are of flexible wings instead.

          Sorry for some mistakes in writing, that is not write English fluently.
          Thank you.

      4. “flex” in parentheses.
        Are you read ALL the text, until the end?
        The flex is a sarcastic mode, ’cause Horner said they were!
        But they aren´t… and I sais this on the text.

        (I Write in portuguese because is my linguage)

        1. I got it Tomás, Google translate did the job for me (only just!). Thanks for the info.

          I didnt notice they were using different wings during the race. I’m note sure that would be the difference in their speed, Lewis has generally had the edge in qualifying and with Jensons damage during the race it’s impossible to tell.

          1. gDog;

            Completing the best performance of the wing used by Lewis is mine may be wrong, but I’m sure it is.

            McLaren have finally found what was wrong from Turkey when they won and did the double. Some brilliant mind focused on your problem on the wing, he saw that she had been changed and now decided to take a test at Spa, bringing in a new Istamnbul and inspired by Ferrari and Red Bull.

            Lewis liked most of the old, since the new Button. Here we see the result, the old 0.3 is faster than red bull, it is proven the best laps of the race on lap 32, Hamilton (1:49.069) and Webber (1:49.395).

            Now that Turkey should also be deployed to Button, which can be very good for the team woking.

            Let’s see if Ferrari and Red Bull realize it, because the flexible wing does not seem to help.

            Big hug!

    13. Oh dear, this has turned into a long comment! There’s a slight lack of rational thinking here, which I appreciate started with James Allen’s article. His suggestion that the Red Bull crashes in Australia, Valencia, Turkey and Spa may be linked is a bit silly.

      Both of Webber’s were effectively straight-line accidents caused by differences in speed (Webber braking too late to miss Hamilton in Aus, Heikki braking earlier than Webber expected in Valencia). Turkey was caused by a lack of racing room being given, not a loss of control. I don’t recall what happened in Canada (@Hairs).

      Sliding skirts were banned because they risked suddenly losing a huge percentage of the car’s total downforce (most of which came from the underbody rather than the crude wings) if a bump in the track surface exposed a gap under the skirt, or if the skirt became damaged or stuck. The driver would turn into a high-speed corner expecting much, much more grip than was available, and crash. That differs greatly from this situation, where the wings are visibly affected by turbulence when running a few inches behind another car. Cars don’t go through corners inches apart, mostly because turbulence and low pressure cause the following car to lose front downforce. The wobbling of the front wing, if you think about how the wing is connected to the rest of the car, doesn’t make the car turn one way or the other; the only effect is a fluctuation in the maximum level of front downforce, which is anticipated by the following driver because all cars with wings suffer the same problem. It’s not a safety issue.

      Vettel lost grip at the rear end, not the front, and this was caused by a small bump and, mainly, by the pendulum effect of two rapid changes of direction – much like the ‘Scandinavian flick’ used in rallying. Vettel’s problem clearly wasn’t a lack of front grip; he was jinking to the outside of the track, not trying to turn the car at its maximum rate of ~5g.

      To look at it more logically: when Vettel pulled out of Button’s slipstream, one side of the wing was exposed to free air flowing at 190mph. The other side of the wing was still behind the McLaren, not only a very low-pressure area (the right-hand aerofoil would have been stalled and producing no downforce) but actually in the upwash, so there would have been a bit of uplift on that side. That’s a huge torque loading on the wing supports, so of course there was some flexing.

      Nothing is infinitely stiff, and to make something stiffer, it needs to be heavier, which is anathema to an F1 designer. The team will make the component no stiffer than it needs to be to pass all the tests and to ensure it doesn’t break when exposed to foreseeable loading… especially as there are benefits if it does flex a bit.

      There’s no suggestion the wing is failing under fatigue, and RB drivers aren’t cornering inches behind other cars, which is the only place you see this front wing movement. As for the number of RBR overtaking moves, you’ve got to remember they’ve been running nearer the front for a lot more of the racing time, so it’s no surprise you can’t remember as many successful passes during this season.

      1. Please stop regurgitating the Red Bull propaganda regarding Turkey. How on Earth could Vettel be 2/3 in front of Webber if there was a “lack of racing room being given”? Did he fly over him?

        1. I didn’t say it was Webber’s fault. In fact I strongly believe it was Vettel who didn’t give Webber racing room, by coming back across the track before he was fully ahead. I just wanted to avoid apportioning blame in my comment so that Vettel fans didn’t derail the point of my argument by arguing about bias!

      2. there are so many holes in your statement i will just pick a couple of logical one.
        first “to make something stiffer, it needs to be heavier” they just need to stop laying the fibres so it can flex.
        second “this was caused by a small bump” look at the video again and you will see the effect of the bump on camera, the picture stalls for a split second well before the cars connect,
        dont have time and dont care about the rest…

        1. Your first point, Eric: the ends of the wing move a lot, but the plane of the wing actually stays pretty rigid in the turbulence – look at the video again (which I just have) and the left-hand side moves down about as much as the right-hand side moves up. As the lift is equal to the droop, that suggests the flex characteristic is pretty linear (it equally suggests that the wing supports can deflect under torsional aero loading, which is also relevant to your remark). If all the deflection of the wing was caused by a special lay-up, the response would be less linear – you would see the left side of the wing droop as it emerged into free air, but the right side would stay static as it’s still in low pressure.

          As the wing (a) passes FIA tests, (b) hasn’t broken under fatigue and (c) can’t physically steer the car by flexing (I’d be interested to hear an explanation of how anybody thinks it could), it’s safe and legal until the FIA make the tests stricter – which I think they should.

          I don’t know what your second point was. Vettel swerved, braked hard while doing so, and lost the back end. The bump which various SV fans are blaming for his loss of control wouldn’t have helped, but it wasn’t the main cause. Neither was a wobbly wing.

          If you want to point to any more “holes” you’ve found I’d be pleased to answer.

    14. I don’t think he braked earlier then he used to, but he certainly have braked earlier then Seb in that case. Which might have messed up his overtaking maneuver. Just like what happened to Webber in Valencia, where Webber’s were just that more spectacular because it was so much in front of Webber’s braking point so he were not aware that it would happen. But as others have posted it might be the RB flexi wings that cause trouble because the amount of down-force is much more affected when driving behind another car and when in free air.
      First i thought that the “problem” with the flexing was just that McLaren could not make a wing as clever as Red Bull or Ferrari (who is pretty close to the RB) but i would like to see a further analysis of this problem because RB surely have had bad luck with overtaking. Either crashing or simply being unable to get close enough. It might be because the McLaren has a more stable down-force level when driving in the slipsteam and when not. Because if it is the case that it causes a problem they should surely be banned as fast as possible, because what we like to see is racing, not the two RB guys messing other peoples races up.

    15. According to Horner of course, it must be anyone else’s fault but Vettel, or day I say Newey.

    16. We tend to forget that Jenson has achieved what he has so far this year after moving to a new team & while driving a car that was not conceived with him in mind at all. I think we will get a much better take on things next year when he has had some input into the car from the outset.

    17. I saw a driving line comparison between Hamilton and Vettel going through a chicane. It demonstrated that Vettel braked half a car length later than Hamilton. This in fact made him slower through the chicane since Hamilton had the better line though the chicane and better exit speed, but that’s not the point.

      It could suggest that Vettel likes to break (too) late for a chicane and perhaps that’s why he got caught out by Button?

      Also, Button says that he didn’t brake early, but he also says that he was driving carefully. Which I assume means that he did brake earlier than usual.

      1. Yes, earlier than usual in a dry race with a non-damaged car. But not earlier than in the laps before, which is what makes it silly if that caught out Vettel suddenly in that lap: he should have, could have, noticed it before already.

        If I recall correctly, it was Adam Cooper in an article for speed.tv noting how much Vettel was, in after-race explanation, focusing on the cars behind him closing up (just like in Turkey, in fact), perhaps even so much so that he became careless in getting past the car in front out of fear of being overtaken himself.

    18. I like how at the bottom of the article is an advert for Injury Claims:

      Have you been involved in an accident at work that wasn’t your fault?

      Jenson Button, Frome, 30: “I was just minding my own business when this crazy German fellow rammed the back of my car. I lost the championship but the Accident Advice Helpline won me £10,000 in compensation!”

      1. Love it, this has to be COTD!

    19. If Button would have been there then he could have won the race when Hamilton made that mistake in the rain when he ran wide on the gravel.I think his campaign is over all Mclaren can do is to have him help Hamilton for the championship.

      1. How could he have won when he was nowhere near the pace of Webber and the whole train behind him??

        What happened happened! All that “if’ing” could make anybody champion. Heck, I could have been 5-time champion “if” only McLaren had hired me and “if” only the others didn’t drive too fast! And that’s a fact!!

    20. “If Button would have been there then he could have won the race when Hamilton made that mistake in the rain when he ran wide on the gravel…”.

      Or he would have followed Hamilton off the road…or Hamilton would not have had an off-road moment, you never know!

    21. “Jenson Button has denied he braked early for the Bus Stop chicane in the Belgian Grand Prix, causing Sebastian Vettel to crash.”

      Don’t even think it was even worth responding to… Vettel was sideways in Button’s car. Doesn’t matter whether he braked at all or not, it doesn’t cause someone to T-bone you completely of control.

    22. I blame Horner…..

      If he had of kept his trap shut, we may well be talking about how this crash either was or was not caused by the flexing wing… But no… His stupid comment, most likely used to distract people from the wing itself, has in fact, rather annoyingly, distracted people from the wing…

      that Button braked early comment has worked a charm…

      Why haven’t the stewards taken up their power to ban flexi-wings? … Surely if nothing else, this is a safety issue…

    23. sennarainho

      no, we never watch races, we just post blogs on specialist sites without really understanding what we are doing.

      Even Vettel knows he cocked up, to say anything else is just fanboy nonsense. And Button made more high pressure overtakes (that stuck) in the 2nd half of last season than Vettel has in career.

      Button is no racer in the Lewis mould (who is) but hes a class act who can bring a car home. Button in the best car won the first 6 races last year. Vettel very much hasnt.

      1. LOL @ your opening coment! Sometimes ti sure sounds like it!

        I’m not even slightly a Vettel fan and I never said he didn’t cock up but it was nothing bu an honest mistake in tricky conditions.

        I haven’t counted Button/Vettel overtakes and it makes no sense since Vettel usually starts in front – something Button hardly ever manages even in the fastes car.

        What you saw in the final half of 2009 was Button in the fastes car. The first half was Button in a car build to different specs!

        …he didn’t really bring the car home this time did he? It will always be risky to keep blocking instead of being on pace. :-)

    24. yep for sure if crash kid is behind you i guess you let him thru to crash into someone else.

      yes Buttons was a different spec but the toyota and williams ( i think) both ran double diffusers last year and the Brawn was certainly not quickest in the 2nd half of 2009 as they had no development money.

    25. no. say it !!!

      reminds me of a blackadder quote about german spies from Colonel Metchitt

      “filthy hun weasals fighting their underhand war”

      and then he goes on to our British spies:

      “splendid fellows, brave heroes risking life and limb for blighty”

      1. LMAO! Good one!

        I think Jenson is at least five times better than Lauda, Senna and Schumacher combined!

        There I said it!

        (I mean Mathias, Bruno and Ralf though):-D

    26. Ummm… if it had been a Truli train would we be talking about this? I commented on the live blog that it was just a racing incident… and I still believe that it was.

      JB has 5 times the experience in F1 that SV has… Unless we get some telemetry that proves otherwise… JB was slow and he braked early. I like the way that Vettle is racing… very aggressively. We need that. I thought the drive though was bogus.

      I fear that the politically correct form of racing that destroyed open wheel racing in the U.S. is sinking its teeth into F1.

    27. I agree 100%! He Vettel only tried to get past – then slipped. Noting unusual in racing and not more dangerous than it will always be!

    28. haha. touche !

      you forgot Piquet though…junior

      1. True… and maybe even Villeneuve… jr.

    29. I’m not Button fan, at all, but it was 100% Vettel’s fault, as it was in Turkey and Hungary.

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