World champion Jenson Button has no doubts that his McLaren team is going to benefit from the internal troubles at Red Bull Racing.
On the back of the front wing controversy that overshadowed Mark Webber's victory at the British Grand Prix, Button is convinced that Red Bull Racing is going to suffer from the distraction of needing to gets its house in order.
Speaking after his fourth placed finish at Silverstone helped him maintain his second spot in the drivers' championship behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Button said he reckoned divisions in Red Bull's camp were positive for McLaren.
"Yes," he said. "It means they're going to be busy discussing where they're going to go from here. We've got a good relationship here. However much people take the Mickey out of how well Lewis and I get on, it works well with our team and it means the guys back in the factory are not worrying about us and how we are with each other.
"They can focus on making our car quicker. We're not quick enough. We're not as quick as the Red Bulls and we need to focus. But we can concentrate 100 per cent on making our car go quicker and not worry about politics on the circuit between the two drivers."
Button admitted that he had some sympathy for Webber, after the Australian was left fuming that Red Bull Racing took a new front wing off his car and gave it to team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
"I'm proud of the guy," said Button. "He did a good job. Whether the front wing made a difference or not, it was blown up and it's difficult for a driver to go into a race knowing that he doesn't have the same car as his team-mate.
"Even if it didn't make his team-mate go any quicker, he knows that they chose to put it on his team-mate's car and not his. Even if the car's no quicker it still hurts, mentally, so it was a great job from him and he deserved that victory. He did a good job."
Lewis Hamilton has echoed Button's feelings of warmth towards Webber - and said he would never wish to be in the situation that his title rival found himself in.
"I can imagine how he feels," he said. "I wouldn't want to be ... if that was me, sjeez… I asked him earlier and he said don't worry I'm pushing. He's just doing a job. He's doing the talking on the track. And that's what I would do. But it's not nice.
"When you're in a team that you love, people around you, all you want to do is be loved back. I don't know what's going on in the team, or whether we're blowing it all out of proportion. We don't know exactly what's going on. He did say it wasn't right. But he still did the job and that's great for him."
And Hamilton says that the internal trouble at Red Bull has simply served to make him happier about the positive atmosphere he has found inside McLaren.
"It [the Red Bull situation] is not encouraging, it just makes us more proud as a team to see that we're doing a solid job - and that the harmony in our team is good.
"The guys that we're mainly competing with, it seems that we have more harmony in our team and that's why we're leading both championships."
News from Formula One in the Formation Lap.
Showing posts with label Jenson Button. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jenson Button. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Button suspects car problem
Jenson Button is convinced that his McLaren developed a problem before Silverstone qualifying, having been baffled to find himself only 14th on the grid.
McLaren had not been on Red Bull's pace this weekend as its eagerly-awaited exhaust-blown diffuser did not pay off in practice and was removed late last night, but Button said he still expected much better than a seventh row spot.
"This morning the car felt really good," Button insisted. "I personally think there is something wrong - the car was undriveable this afternoon as soon as I jumped in it.
"I took so much front end out of it, five or six turns, which is 1.5 per cent, which is just wrong. We had this problem on Friday where we kept having to take front wing off to get the balance."
He said the problem was definitely something more than just the car's balance changing with the overnight change of specification.
"It hasn't got the blown diffuser, but this weekend it's been tricky for us - but that wasn't normal," Button said.
"This morning the car felt reasonably good, we have a new front wing which is working really well, but something felt very wrong then. I was getting on with the car this morning even if we didn't have much experience with the new setting."
Button added that postponing the full introduction of the new exhaust system was definitely the right move in his opinion - despite today's result.
"For now, there is a lot of work that needs doing on the upgrades to improve them," he said. "It would not have been right to run them here, so it was the right decision."
McLaren had not been on Red Bull's pace this weekend as its eagerly-awaited exhaust-blown diffuser did not pay off in practice and was removed late last night, but Button said he still expected much better than a seventh row spot.
"This morning the car felt really good," Button insisted. "I personally think there is something wrong - the car was undriveable this afternoon as soon as I jumped in it.
"I took so much front end out of it, five or six turns, which is 1.5 per cent, which is just wrong. We had this problem on Friday where we kept having to take front wing off to get the balance."
He said the problem was definitely something more than just the car's balance changing with the overnight change of specification.
"It hasn't got the blown diffuser, but this weekend it's been tricky for us - but that wasn't normal," Button said.
"This morning the car felt reasonably good, we have a new front wing which is working really well, but something felt very wrong then. I was getting on with the car this morning even if we didn't have much experience with the new setting."
Button added that postponing the full introduction of the new exhaust system was definitely the right move in his opinion - despite today's result.
"For now, there is a lot of work that needs doing on the upgrades to improve them," he said. "It would not have been right to run them here, so it was the right decision."
McLaren ditches blown diffuser for now
McLaren has abandoned its exhaust-blown diffuser for the rest of the British Grand Prix weekend, AUTOSPORT can reveal, after a difficult first day of running with the concept at Silverstone on Friday.
The Woking-based team had high hopes that the update package it brought on to the car for this weekend's race would help lift its performance to take the fight to pre-event favourites Red Bull Racing.
However, both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button failed to get comfortable with the new handling and set-up of the revised MP4-25 at Silverstone - with Hamilton running off-track several times as he took the car to the limit.
Button admitted that the car had not felt good with the new parts - and that the team needed to invest much more effort in making them work.
"Today's been a little bit trickier than expected in the car," said the reigning world champion.
"First of all I couldn't get a set-up for the car with the new package, but it improved at the end of the day, but there's still a lot of work we need to do. We are not where we'd like to be. The car is very tricky in a few places around the circuit.
"We've definitely made some improvements in certain places, but we don't have the right balance yet. I haven't had a perfect day today, which is disappointing because even on a Friday it's good to see so many people out there."
With Hamilton ending the day more than 1.5 seconds adrift of the best time from Red Bull Racing, McLaren felt that its chances of a decent result in the British GP would be best served with using the package it knows best.
Late on Friday night, McLaren mechanics were seen wheeling the updated floors out of the Silverstone paddock as work began on revising the cars back to the configuration that has been used up until this race - with the standard exhaust set-up.
Sources have revealed that McLaren understands where improvements can be made with the package, and revisions will be developed to ensure the exhaust-blown diffuser is back on the car for the German Grand Prix.
McLaren had come into the weekend viewing the British GP as a critical weekend in its title challenge - with the performance of the blown diffuser likely to give it a benchmark on its ability to take the fight to Red Bull Racing.
Although removing the blown diffuser is a setback for McLaren's hopes at Silverstone, the performance of the car in recent races means the outfit still has the chance of taking a decent haul of points with the older exhaust concept.
The exhaust-blown diffusers are far from straightforward to integrate into the cars, and Mercedes GP found it had to compromise its version of the design in Valencia a fortnight ago when it encountered overheating problems caused by the exhaust gases.
The Woking-based team had high hopes that the update package it brought on to the car for this weekend's race would help lift its performance to take the fight to pre-event favourites Red Bull Racing.
However, both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button failed to get comfortable with the new handling and set-up of the revised MP4-25 at Silverstone - with Hamilton running off-track several times as he took the car to the limit.
Button admitted that the car had not felt good with the new parts - and that the team needed to invest much more effort in making them work.
"Today's been a little bit trickier than expected in the car," said the reigning world champion.
"First of all I couldn't get a set-up for the car with the new package, but it improved at the end of the day, but there's still a lot of work we need to do. We are not where we'd like to be. The car is very tricky in a few places around the circuit.
"We've definitely made some improvements in certain places, but we don't have the right balance yet. I haven't had a perfect day today, which is disappointing because even on a Friday it's good to see so many people out there."
With Hamilton ending the day more than 1.5 seconds adrift of the best time from Red Bull Racing, McLaren felt that its chances of a decent result in the British GP would be best served with using the package it knows best.
Late on Friday night, McLaren mechanics were seen wheeling the updated floors out of the Silverstone paddock as work began on revising the cars back to the configuration that has been used up until this race - with the standard exhaust set-up.
Sources have revealed that McLaren understands where improvements can be made with the package, and revisions will be developed to ensure the exhaust-blown diffuser is back on the car for the German Grand Prix.
McLaren had come into the weekend viewing the British GP as a critical weekend in its title challenge - with the performance of the blown diffuser likely to give it a benchmark on its ability to take the fight to Red Bull Racing.
Although removing the blown diffuser is a setback for McLaren's hopes at Silverstone, the performance of the car in recent races means the outfit still has the chance of taking a decent haul of points with the older exhaust concept.
The exhaust-blown diffusers are far from straightforward to integrate into the cars, and Mercedes GP found it had to compromise its version of the design in Valencia a fortnight ago when it encountered overheating problems caused by the exhaust gases.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
McLaren duo shrug off Hill's comments
McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on Tuesday shrugged off comments by former world champion Damon Hill that the title fight between them will soon "boil over".
Hill told British media on Monday that he expected the battle between the McLaren to intensify as the season progresses.
"Jenson will not be letting Lewis get away with anything," Hill was quoted as saying by Reuters. "Between the two British drivers in possibly the best car, you are going to have a very close and fascinating battle which is great for everyone.
"It's just been on simmer at the moment. It's going to start to boil over. This could be the start of the rest of the season."
The 1996 world champion also compared the duo with the tortoise and the hare in their approach to racing.
"They have totally different approaches," Hill said on the Mirror. "One is Senna-esque and the other a Prost-like driver. So it's the tortoise and the hare, which is an unfair comparison calling a racing driver a tortoise."
On Tuesday, during a press conference for British GP title sponsor Santander Button shrugged off the comments.
"They are his words and not mine," he said. "I won the world championship last year because I was quick, and I won six races and was always there fighting.
"For me that is key to the championship. It is not always about just consistency. You need to be fighting at the front and you need to be challenging for victories all the time. That is exactly where I want to be."
Hamilton was also unmoved by Hill's remarks.
"I don't really have a reaction to it," Hamilton said. "I think it is always very interesting to hear past world champions talk about present drivers and present world champions, and to hear their thoughts.
"It is then interesting to see whether it plays out and whether it is true or false - and whether they actually know what they are talking about or not. You will find out later in the year I guess."
Button insisted both him and Hamilton are aware that they need to continue to work together in harmony to stay ahead of their rivals.
"You have friends in F1," he said. "We are friends with a lot of the drivers we are racing against as well and definitely we are in the same team and at the end of the season you want to be the best, not just in your team but on the grid.
"We are both very competitive and we both want to win, but as we keep saying, first of all you have to work together. You have to work closely to improve the car and I think we've done a very good job this year of pushing each other very hard, not just on the circuit but also off the circuit in developing the car and the set-up, so for me it is a good relationship. I am sure it is going to continue.
"If you are both quick you are going to be racing wheel to wheel. We've had a bit of fun over the last few races but not as much fun as maybe other teams have."
Hill told British media on Monday that he expected the battle between the McLaren to intensify as the season progresses.
"Jenson will not be letting Lewis get away with anything," Hill was quoted as saying by Reuters. "Between the two British drivers in possibly the best car, you are going to have a very close and fascinating battle which is great for everyone.
"It's just been on simmer at the moment. It's going to start to boil over. This could be the start of the rest of the season."
The 1996 world champion also compared the duo with the tortoise and the hare in their approach to racing.
"They have totally different approaches," Hill said on the Mirror. "One is Senna-esque and the other a Prost-like driver. So it's the tortoise and the hare, which is an unfair comparison calling a racing driver a tortoise."
On Tuesday, during a press conference for British GP title sponsor Santander Button shrugged off the comments.
"They are his words and not mine," he said. "I won the world championship last year because I was quick, and I won six races and was always there fighting.
"For me that is key to the championship. It is not always about just consistency. You need to be fighting at the front and you need to be challenging for victories all the time. That is exactly where I want to be."
Hamilton was also unmoved by Hill's remarks.
"I don't really have a reaction to it," Hamilton said. "I think it is always very interesting to hear past world champions talk about present drivers and present world champions, and to hear their thoughts.
"It is then interesting to see whether it plays out and whether it is true or false - and whether they actually know what they are talking about or not. You will find out later in the year I guess."
Button insisted both him and Hamilton are aware that they need to continue to work together in harmony to stay ahead of their rivals.
"You have friends in F1," he said. "We are friends with a lot of the drivers we are racing against as well and definitely we are in the same team and at the end of the season you want to be the best, not just in your team but on the grid.
"We are both very competitive and we both want to win, but as we keep saying, first of all you have to work together. You have to work closely to improve the car and I think we've done a very good job this year of pushing each other very hard, not just on the circuit but also off the circuit in developing the car and the set-up, so for me it is a good relationship. I am sure it is going to continue.
"If you are both quick you are going to be racing wheel to wheel. We've had a bit of fun over the last few races but not as much fun as maybe other teams have."
McLaren unsure how upgrade will fare
McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale says the team cannot be certain if its upgrade package will deliver the desired results at Silverstone this weekend, and that practice performance will decide whether the blown diffuser is kept on for the race.
The team carried out a straightline test in Spain with the new package last weekend, but Neale admitted that the outcome was inconclusive and that the focus had been on reliability.
"Like all tests, I would describe it as a curate's egg," he said during this week's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "Some bits went very well, some bits gave us some surprises.
"Of course it's straightline testing so it's not like a full test in the conventional sense as we used to get mid-season and do during the winter.
"Because of the limited time and limited mileage that we had, we weren't able to do a full set of old car/new car running, so we just gathered as much data as we could, went through all of the race prove-outs, so we know if the car will run sensibly behind the safety car, can we do an aborted grid start, will it look after itself in pitstops? So we mainly focused on the durability aspect as well as straightline performance measuring.
"I'm confident that we've got a reasonable performance step. Do I think we've got everything that we expected? Hard to tell at this stage, I'll wait to see what the race drivers think. So Friday will be a testing day for us."
When asked by AUTOSPORT whether removing the package after Friday practice at Silverstone was an option, Neale replied: "Yeah and I think that's something that all the teams are increasingly doing.
"You've seen a number of teams with complex projects, like blown diffusers or the F-duct for example, which are not just paper exercises - there's a lot of installation issues that you have to simultaneously work. That requires track time to get right, and I heard one of my colleagues in another team describe the F-duct as the 'F-ing duct' because it does take time to get these things right.
"We are ambitious, we'd like to take it this weekend and if the drivers think it's good it will stay on and we'll run it. If not, we'll continue to develop it."
Neale said that McLaren had accelerated its development plans in response to the level of upgrades other teams had recently introduced - but that change of plan meant the team was in a race against time to prepare for Silverstone.
"We did try to pull forward a variety of packages that we had planned through to Germany," he confirmed. "So at the moment I've got a range of things that I'd like to get to the circuit on Friday that we haven't built yet. So we're in that sort of fire-fight between now and Friday - just how much can we get there?"
He also played down the significance of the blown diffuser - the most notable element of the Silverstone upgrade - agreeing with recent suggestions from Red Bull's Christian Horner that the device's contribution to performance had been over-estimated.
"In Formula 1 it's rare that there are golden bullets that suddenly transform your car from uncompetitive to competitive. We, more than most, last year found that to be the case. It was just straightforward hard work and effort," said Neale.
"It's early days in development, but I would tend to agree with Christian that it's not a case of bolt on your blown diffuser and then blow everybody into the weeds. That's not going to happen. It's one of the things that we are working with at the moment, as part of a package of changes that we are bringing to both the next race and subsequent races.
"In terms of predicting what it will do, I'm not going to be a hostage to fortune and predict a number of wins. Let's see what the race drivers think of it on Friday. We just haven't got any what I would call real circuit running on it at the moment, so I'm going to reserve judgement."
The team carried out a straightline test in Spain with the new package last weekend, but Neale admitted that the outcome was inconclusive and that the focus had been on reliability.
"Like all tests, I would describe it as a curate's egg," he said during this week's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "Some bits went very well, some bits gave us some surprises.
"Of course it's straightline testing so it's not like a full test in the conventional sense as we used to get mid-season and do during the winter.
"Because of the limited time and limited mileage that we had, we weren't able to do a full set of old car/new car running, so we just gathered as much data as we could, went through all of the race prove-outs, so we know if the car will run sensibly behind the safety car, can we do an aborted grid start, will it look after itself in pitstops? So we mainly focused on the durability aspect as well as straightline performance measuring.
"I'm confident that we've got a reasonable performance step. Do I think we've got everything that we expected? Hard to tell at this stage, I'll wait to see what the race drivers think. So Friday will be a testing day for us."
When asked by AUTOSPORT whether removing the package after Friday practice at Silverstone was an option, Neale replied: "Yeah and I think that's something that all the teams are increasingly doing.
"You've seen a number of teams with complex projects, like blown diffusers or the F-duct for example, which are not just paper exercises - there's a lot of installation issues that you have to simultaneously work. That requires track time to get right, and I heard one of my colleagues in another team describe the F-duct as the 'F-ing duct' because it does take time to get these things right.
"We are ambitious, we'd like to take it this weekend and if the drivers think it's good it will stay on and we'll run it. If not, we'll continue to develop it."
Neale said that McLaren had accelerated its development plans in response to the level of upgrades other teams had recently introduced - but that change of plan meant the team was in a race against time to prepare for Silverstone.
"We did try to pull forward a variety of packages that we had planned through to Germany," he confirmed. "So at the moment I've got a range of things that I'd like to get to the circuit on Friday that we haven't built yet. So we're in that sort of fire-fight between now and Friday - just how much can we get there?"
He also played down the significance of the blown diffuser - the most notable element of the Silverstone upgrade - agreeing with recent suggestions from Red Bull's Christian Horner that the device's contribution to performance had been over-estimated.
"In Formula 1 it's rare that there are golden bullets that suddenly transform your car from uncompetitive to competitive. We, more than most, last year found that to be the case. It was just straightforward hard work and effort," said Neale.
"It's early days in development, but I would tend to agree with Christian that it's not a case of bolt on your blown diffuser and then blow everybody into the weeds. That's not going to happen. It's one of the things that we are working with at the moment, as part of a package of changes that we are bringing to both the next race and subsequent races.
"In terms of predicting what it will do, I'm not going to be a hostage to fortune and predict a number of wins. Let's see what the race drivers think of it on Friday. We just haven't got any what I would call real circuit running on it at the moment, so I'm going to reserve judgement."
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Button wins Chinese Grand Prix
Jenson Button took his second victory of the year by controlling a hectic, wet Chinese Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion once again benefited from an early tyre call - this time staying out on slicks in the rain while most pitted for intermediates – and showed his class again from the front.
Even when a safety car period eradicated the lead his tyre gamble had earned him, he kept his head in tricky conditions and even stretched away from McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages when it came down to who had looked after their tyres the best.
But far from being a race of nursing the cars home, for close to 90 minutes it was frantic stuff as the weather once again played havoc with Formula 1.
The drama started early when Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control of his Force India under braking, spun and collected the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber.
Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari and Rubens Barrichello were also involved and headed for repairs in the pits, while Nico Hulkenberg did well to pick his way through unscathed.
But the safety car was still required, prompting both Red Bulls, both Ferraris, Hamilton and Michael Schumacher to gamble on changing to intermediate tyres.
Initially, it looked like the right call as Fernando Alonso charged past cars still on slicks. But Nico Rosberg and Button, up front having stayed out on slicks, were lapping faster just one tour later as the inters cooked quickly with the circuit not quite wet enough for them.
Within a couple of laps all those to take them were back in the pits for slicks, leaving Rosberg, Button, Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov well ahead of the rest.
The stops included Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel racing each other into the pitlane and leaving side-by-side too, an incident that will be investigated later.
No sooner had the likes of Hamilton and Vettel fought their way back up the order that the rain started again, heavier this time. Leader Rosberg was caught out and a brief off-track excursion allowed Button a run at him to take the lead, and soon after everyone was in the pits to get inters back on.
The rain gifted Button, Rosberg and the Renaults a free pitstop, so the leaders 50-second advantage remained. But the safety car was back out after Alguersuari clipped the back of an HRT car and left front wing debris scattered on the track.
Button bunched the pack right up for the restart and, with the new rule about overtaking from the pitlane line, rather than the start/finish line, Vettel tried to take advantage to mug Hamilton into the last corner. But it backfired for his Red Bull team as he only succeeded in forcing Hamilton wide and shoving Webber off the track on the outside, costing the Aussie several places.
Hamilton once again had to make his way back to the front and his journey included a great battle with Schumacher. The old hand defended brilliantly for the first few advances, despite struggling for traction in his Mercedes. But eventually Hamilton made it stick with an opportunistic dive between Turns 8 and 9 – something that became his staple move of the day.
He then caught and passed Rosberg for second, just before the field descended on the pitlane once more for a final fresh set of intermediate tyres.
Things eventually settled down for the last 20 laps, as Button kept Hamilton at a safe distance. There was just a brief scare four laps from home when he overshot the final hairpin. But Hamilton was also struggling to keep his car on the road with fast-balding inters.
Rosberg couldn't quite challenge for the victory but had no trouble keeping Fernando Alonso at bay for third – the Spaniard getting in reach of the podium despite five pitstops, including a drive-through for jumping the start.
Kubica continued Renault's good form, capitalising on his early decision to stay on slicks to hold onto fifth. Vettel looked like homing in on Kubica in the closing stages but never threatened.
Webber had another day of missed opportunities and couldn't make his way forward at the same rate as Hamilton or Vettel, but he also had his share of misfortune. Already down the order he gambled on an earlier final stop, but it just left him in more tyre trouble than most come the end of the race and he was mugged for seventh by Petrov two laps from the end.
Some wise calls and excellent race craft kept Schumacher in the hunt in spite of his lack of pace. But when the race finally settled down he had no answer and was jumped late by Petrov, and then by his former Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa on the final lap – the latter once again failing to impress in a chaotic wet race.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS
The Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit, China;
56 laps; 305.066km;
Weather: Mixed conditions.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h44:42.163
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1.530
3. Rosberg Mercedes + 9.484
4. Alonso Ferrari + 11.869
5. Kubica Renault + 22.213
6. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 33.310
7. Petrov Renault + 47.600
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 52.172
9. Massa Ferrari + 57.796
10. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:01.749
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:02.874
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:03.665
13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.416
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
15. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
16. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:42.061
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 27
Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 9
De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 8
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1
Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1
World Championship standings, round 4:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Button 60 1. McLaren-Mercedes 109
2. Rosberg 50 2. Ferrari 90
3. Alonso 49 3. Red Bull-Renault 73
4. Hamilton 49 4. Mercedes 60
5. Vettel 45 5. Renault 46
6. Massa 41 6. Force India-Mercedes 18
7. Kubica 40 7. Williams-Cosworth 6
8. Webber 28 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2
9. Sutil 10
10. Schumacher 10
11. Liuzzi 8
12. Petrov 6
13. Barrichello 5
14. Alguersuari 2
15. Hulkenberg 1
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)