Boy will you look silly if jenson does a HK.
what excuse will you use if that happens 3 wheels on his waggon?

But most Macca/jenson/lewis fans are looking forward to a good season and hoping between the two of them they manage to do the double.

lol...comfortable in your delusions. one minute you say 'yes yes I dont like Lewis, but he one of, if not the best driver outthere', next minute u say "he can only beat Button if Mclaren favor him"

make up your mind

Because nobody knew who Lewis was. The guys who has been following Lewis like MS were not suprised at all

Kimi and Lewis have been beating Jenson with a weaker car, so that excuse can't be made if Lewis beats Button

A question for the posters here. Suppose Hamilton will beat Button with the same margin as Vettel has beaten Webber this year... will that improve Buttons reputation, make it worse or will Buttons reputation stay about the same when that happens?

I say it because Webber has gone up in my book because he gave Vettel a good run for his money.

This is going to be the mantra of the 2010 season, I fear. Oh well, every year there is one, so be it. It will be interesting to see the British fans for once split attacking one another over this forum

You do understand that your opinion is not a fact?

not as much fun as watching the Latin blood boilfest at Ferrari
Just incase you forgot about that one which promises to be far more heated than the brits.

Depends on the margin of victory.... HK was considered WDC/top driver in the future material when he joined Macca. Now he's searching for a drive in F1. I hope JB knows what he is doing.

his belief is that lewis hamilton isnt as good as jenson, even though ive backed it up firmly with stats to all his accusations he then resorts to monty python sketches as a counter point.

next year there is no bias towards a driver, theres no pit strategy, and mclaren proved this year if you bothered to watch the practise sessions that upgrades were offered to drivers on a turn by turn basis. this cuts out all unfair bias towards 1 driver as the only real bias situation was pit stop strategy last year and now that that has been taken out of the equation jenson fans have nothing to stand on.

you can say the car will be built towards hamilton but the engineers have said they just build a car that is capable of going fast and it is the drivers responsiblity to adjust. Lewis Hamilton 2007, didn't have any input on the car yet came in, adjusted and won. If Jenson can not do the same, then hes not as good. thats very realistic layout of the situation at hand between Jenson and Lewis.

Personally i have no wish for Jenson to be 'destroyed' by lewis, i want mclaren to do the double and jenson offers the best chance to bring this home, whilst i think lewis will beat jenson in the WDC, i wouldn't be outraged if jenson was to win it as its good for britain and its good for mclaren.

Any true racing fan will watch them race and accept the outcome.

I support Lewis more mainly because I think he's a greater driver, but if Jense turns out to be as good then so much the better, it won't be a problem. Quite the opposite, he'll be beating the Ferraris too .

Same as I cheered for Alonso until I saw that Lewis is better, if Jenson proves to be better than Lewis next season, I'll easily become Jenson fanboy : In the end, for me its about Mclaren, not drivers.

I believe Hamilton is probably the faster driver. Though not by a huge amount. I think it more likely that events ie engine blow outs, gear box problems, getting taken out by Sutil or similar will have more baring on who ends up on top come the end of the season. Any thoughts?

Same here

A lot of people (understandably) think Jenson will have some kind of advantage with the new tyre regs because of his smooth style, but I think you are underestimating Lewis' adaptability.

Take china in 08, the Ferrari was unquestionably softer on its rubber (to the tune of about 4secs over a stint), and he managed his tyres beautifully. And he has shown he is able to adapt very well to many different aspects of F1.

I'm just glad I'm not Jenson's ego, cos it may get a right good hammering. But I respect him for rising to the challenge.

I think in the races Lewis has been strong with the heavy fuel strategies in general. I think it could rather be Button who struggles with balance changes over the distance and moans about it. For Lewis it doesn't seem to be big problem if balance isn't perfect. But If McLaren have a well balanced nicely handling car, I reckon Jenson could be just as strong as Lewis and maximize the potential with his smooth style.

yep, i dont agree with those that think it will be extremely surprising for Button to match Lewis results.... surprising yea.... but not so extreme.

with a perfect handling car and perfect set-up, Button has proved to be no slouch.... the way he handled Rubens n generally dominated in the beginning of the season was impressive.....even made Brawn draw up Schumie comparisons....

I still dont think he is on the overall level of Hamilton, but I expect him to be quite close behind and might be able to capitalize if Lewis has some DNFs n such

i think all this stuff about high fuel driving is a red herring as alonso said recently. I expect the best drivers in the best cars to be fighting for wins. I dont think the tyre wear issue is going to be a factor as bridgestones recently said the tyres will not be a problem lasting a loonnng stint. The biggest factor will be the car and how it handles tyre wear and when fuel level changes. The drivers will just not push as hard on the first 5-10 laps and guage how the tyres/car is handling. so i dnt think we find the 1980s style of prost drives of being on the front of the grid and dropping back to about 8th and then picking people off when his tyres are in better shape and he closes down people in front. I think we wnt find much different racing to what we have now.

so JB can forget thinking he have an advantage IMHO

Reference the Top Gear Vid, usually in the audiences you get your err..... normal amount of window licker enthusiasts, there are a lot of lookers there all goofy at Young Jensen he is a chick magnet.

I just hope that the pairing turns out to be as exciting as we are all hoping for...
With the expected arrival of MS, Alonso/Massa pairing and Vettel thrown into the mix, what is needed now are closely matched cars (with Mclaren the best of the field of course) and with Mosley gone, we are in for a hell of a racing season.

Bring it on the fireworks!

something tells me the ferrari with its development started early will be a little ahead come the first 3-4 races. then mclarens will come back. I don't think redbull can sustain (maybe i am wrong with newey genius) developments race-by-race (i mean IMPROVEMENTS in time)

I don't quite see how it is not realized that for quite a few of the teams if not most, development of the 2010 car began in 2009 and never stopped. The most notable exception is Ferrari that started their develpment late not early as some people seem to think.

Guys, the thread is about Jenson vs Lewis, and, as neither of the two drive for Ferrari, can we leave Ferrari's development to the Ferrari thread.

My manager went to MTC last week and after the meeting got a building tour (which we always insist on so we can have a good ol' nose around) and although I saw and got a smile from Ron Dennis she topped me by seeing Jenson Button being shown around by Martin Whitmarsh; she apparently got told off for waving like a lunatic because it was becoming embarassing especially after Jenson waved back then moved on - she was still standing there, waving!

Coming back to your comment she too said he was drop dead gorgeous in the flesh even with his scruffy beard, women!

It's because he's rich and famous, women!

Really is quite an astounding thing isn't it the power of fame. When I watched The Beast (Eric Bana) he gets interviewed and there is that exact same look on the reporters face who is about ask him a question.

BTW she says "You know you really have quite nice hair has anyone told you that?"

There is a another Sprint race girl on NASCAR at the end of the races she is always there and every time I see here she has the same look on her face.


BACK ON TOPIC


Good Luck to both may the BEST POM WIN!

For me personally I believe they both has areas that they are better than each other in.

I am in no way a Lewis fan (I have never liked his personality, read: arrogance ... however I am warming to him, this season has done him the world of good in that department) but I do think out the box he is quicker. However over the setting of a whole season raw pace is not everything.

The main reason for me I think we will see Lewis marginally out score Jenson is not driver skill but team dynamic. That team is team Lewis. Jenson, as much as he may like to think otherwise, and as much PR blub they put out to the contrary is making up the numbers. McLaren have, and always have had a "us and them" team architecture as DC has talked about in such depth since calling it a day. Even if the equipment is the same I think as the season goes on the physiological effect will become more and more apparent.

just my two pence.

good post agree with that your saying.

Mclaren may of sold JB the idea of equal team but mclaren is so focused around lewis i think JB will lose the battle and war. As DC has said various times with his experience at mclaren

I've been a Button fan since his first season and stuck with him through the lean years. I also spotted Lewis in his first season in Formula Renault and have been supporting him since then. Whilst I'm fiercely loyal to Jenson, I do think that Lewis has something else - regardless of whether you like his personality, for me, he's the only driver on the grid right now who has the potential to come anywhere near the record-breaking feats of Schumacher.

I'd dearly love Jenson to beat Lewis, and I'll be ecstatic if he does, but I suspect that Lewis' established place in the team coupled with his natural talent may mean that Jenson will have a hard job of it.

P.S. To comment on Jenson's attractiveness - it used to be all about the driving for me - he was a skinny little boy when he started, but man, he's grown into one hell of a sexy man the last few years!

DC was a midfield driver, at best. He never wanted to be an F1 driver when he was a boy, and even now he lacks confidence, he even jumps when Jake looms up unexpectedly . Any of the real (garagiste) team principals would tune into that and tune DC out of their thinking completely, alongside the real winners like Mika & co.

All Jense has to do at McLaren is work incredibly hard at every aspect, like Lewis, and match him on track. Then the team will come to him. On his side of the garage he has the original A team that was put together for Alonso, he has every chance possible.

If Macca thought DC was average, I doubt he would have stayed for 9 YEARS.

DC was a very good No2. They're a precious commodity in their own way.

Are you saying that Hamilton had to work with second rate staff team all those years?

Jenson VS Lewis will be a more interesting battle than Alonso VS Massa.

While I would expect Lewis to be the faster driver at least Jenson will have a chance as McLaren will do a beter job of providing 2 equal cars than Ferrari - Ferrari will favour Alonso - and Massa will be left in the cold.

But in the end Lewis will come out ahead but it will be a more amicable pairing than 2007.

Guys, Alonso, DC and other drivers excepting Lewis and Jenson have no place in this thread.

I'm quite sure McLaren has enough top quality engineers to adequatley serve both cars.

I would think so too, which begs the question why talk about a supposed A team?

well they might not be 'A' team per say cos that will mean the other set is a B team... but undoubtedly they are proven winners with Kimi and I think Mika too



I dont believe the team has any special inclination to always be at Lewis service... if Jenson can prove his pace and commitment, and get results as the season goes on, he will continue to get equal treatment... if he is somehow ahead of Lewis in a title fight involving other teams, I can see them even favoring Jenson if that will increase their chances of a championship.

The main reason Lewis is held in such high regard at Mclaren is because over the last two seasons, it was clear he was the main guy they could really count on to do the biness on track.... if Jenson can do as much business, he will be held in same high regard. Mclaren isnt such a sentimental team to do otherwise.

Yeah sorry I shouldn't have been so obscure, the concept of people being good but some slightly better than others can be difficult. In the winter of 2006/7 Mac had 2 new drivers coming, and a bunch of engineers and mechanics. They assigned some of these to their £30m a year 2x wdc and some to their 0.5 m a year rookie.

They are all very good at their jobs, obviously. Both Slade and Prew applied to RE the 2x wdc, Slade got it.

Jense will inherit the Slade team. Lewis will keep his very good team with Prew.

Jenson is the most underrated WDC after Damon Hill, but LH is the fastest guy since Senna. Nice batlle, but Lewis will win it, sure.

Last Sunday Jenson couldn't beat Lewis in the TOP GEAR, star in a reasonably priced car. Did you see his face when he was told he was slower? Not a good sign for the future.

I dont think it comes down to just the skills of the team

I think the car development ethos is potentially a bigger problem.

Lewis likes his car with over steer to get the nose pointed in the right direction for the exit of the corner. If the car is engineered and evolved at Lewis’s request (as it will of been for the past few seasons) than this will give Jenson trouble.

I do believe that those kind of car handling characteristics are not inherit to the design but are within the setup. However I cannot help but feel that development will always favour items that will benefit Lewis.

A key example can be drawn from the Brawn last season. While the mainstream press and the BBC focused on Jenson’s mental state, what was overlooked was the fact that developments on the car moved in a direction that started to favour Rubens's style. If my memory serves me correctly a major part was the braking system. It required a more "builders boot" approach to breaking which didn’t suit Jenson at all. Ill have to find the piece on that because its quite a good example of how driver lead development can kill the driver that’s not pushing those developments.

McLaren though did alter one of their cars to more suit Montoya, so it is well within their capabilities to taylor on to Jensons needs if the the occassion so arrises.

That's less likely in a strictly controlled environment with no testing and budget caps.

Rubens changed his brakes, that made a big difference to him. Jense made a big change to his setup trying to heat his tyres more, but it just ate them, he screwed 3 races with that I think.

In 08 Mac had a big rebalancing/retraining to get rid of the extreme kartiness Lewis had got it into. After Turkey I think.

Also I remember Ross saying the agility they needed for the Suzuka esses wasnt 'in the setup window' for that car.

All to play for on setup I think. It'll be very interesting if we get some snippets about it.

Lewis anyway will make sure he gets the car he wants. Whenever Jense goes to the factory he'll find Lewis has been there since the day before.

To be honest, I never disliked Jenson untill I watched him on the show

There is something really odd about him. For those who haven't seen him on the show, just watch it and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMbh5gg15YA

Well i've watched it and i don't see what you mean

Boring, cocky and arrogant. He looked as if he was out of this world. Mansell, Webber and Lewis were very great on the show, so it has nothing to do with him being rich and famous but rather his personality. Atleast that's how I feel about him after watching the show.

Jenson getting so much hate

Button sems to be so fixated on his aim to beat Lewis,
that he appears to be tied up in knots.
He looks like he is so obsessed with Lewis (to beat him ),
that appears to me a bit strange and bothersome

I hope Jenson remembers that he first of all drives/races for McLaren, not against Lewis.