Being smooth and technical means very little. I'm afraid a lot of Button fans seem to make a lot of this.
The fastest single lap driver ever, was Ayrton Senna. He was anything but smooth when driving through corners. He used to pepper his throttle and clutch through every corner, sensing as the car was getting away away from him. Schumacher would also do something similar, where he would be dabbing his throttle throughout the corner.
Button's style is to brake once into a corner and accelerate once out of it. That is smooth and is actually the way I drive karts and F1 race simulations. However, as I have found out, it isnt the fastest method of taking a corner.
Even Button himself admitted this weekend that a smooth approach is actually slower than the more aggressive, on-the-edge, ragged style, which he had to adopt, as he progressed throughout the race weekend.
Last year, everybody thought that Button's smooth style would serve him well, after all the driving aids were removed. Barrichello went on to outperform him last years.
If you really want to find out about driving styles, try out some F1 simulations and you will get a better idea of race car driving is about.
In summary, smooth driving isnt the best or the fastest.
Already been proved in another thread with the Schumacher/Senna video that senna and Ms didn't have similar styles. Senna blipped the throttle like a madman to control the car MS used a much smoother throttle and corrected the car by sawing at the steering wheel.
I love the way your still clinging on to one season where Rubens out performed Jenson. In a season when I told you many many times that when the car was good jenson would bury him. He has.
Who cares about one season when the car is almost last who comes first. It's when the car is a winner it matters. DC beat the backside out of Mika in 97 and had to gift Hakkinen a win. When the car was a championship winner there was never any doubt as to who was faster.
I don't think Jensons performance comes down to anything more sinister than he had been run down, didn't know which way to turn. There was no where to go. His number was up.
Both Ross Brawn and Rubens are speaking very highly of Jenson.
"His boss Ross Brawn - the man who guided Michael Schumacher to seven world championships - was ready with the superlatives afterwards.
"Even with the car we had last year I saw little flashes of something exceptional from him and the guys on the team that had been here a few years were always telling me he was a bit special," said Brawn. "I just had not been privileged to see it on a regular basis.
"But now with a good car he is able to deliver and I think that first proper win from the front in Australia [Button won in Hungary 2006 but in an incident-packed race from the middle of the grid] has given him a confidence that has brought an extra dimension.
"His speed is quite exceptional, yet you would never know it watching him because he's so incredibly smooth."
Button's smooth style means he is deceptively fast in the car
Earlier this year, Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello - the man who partnered Schumacher for six years at Ferrari - told Brazilian reporters that judging from what he was seeing this year, Button was as talented and skilled as Schumacher, only not as consistent."
Ross Brawn says he's speed is quite exceptional, but no you know more with your simulation runs on the PC. Hmmmmm who to believe Ross Brawn a man whose been proven to be the best team principle in history or a guy on a forum who spent much of last season telling the world how jenson was washed up. Don't believe me do a search for your own username and see just how many posts you made informing us all how jenson was a wash up.
Then we have hamilton a driver attacking his own team like a child that expected to win all the time and is seen as driving the socks off the because he's beating a team mate that shouldn't be in f1 anymore. Beating a team mate that's not even an equal within the team and is there purely as a no 2 because it won't upset the team leader. At the very least Button doesn't have that luxary.
I don't think hamilton is driving anywhere near his best and I think they need to get him someone faster to push the best out of him like in 2007.
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