Hungarian Grand Prix 2014, Hungaroring Race - 11/19

I wrote that ^ following XeNoN89's post without reading any of the subsequent posts on this page, but now after reading them I can see I've written exactly the same things as the likes of DiCe, Chris and Glaucus, so it's good to see it's not just me that thinks it, I've just written a rant version of it !

:)
 
sunama said:
Indeed. And that was 5 years ago.
People need to understand that in sport, 5 years is a lifetime.
The best driver/player today isnt likely to be the best driver/player in 5 years.
There are few which buck the trend and have long careers at the top.
MSc, Alonso, Federer, Woods - but these people truly are sporting greats.
Button is no longer what he was in 2009. IMO he peaked the year he beat Hamilton in the WDC.
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I think it's easy for people to say that Jenson peaked in 2011 without thinking about what he has achieved since, in such a terrible car.

Before moving to Mclaren everyone ridiculed him and declared that Lewis would eat him for breakfast.

In 2011 Jenson thrashed Lewis and made him look like a rookie.

In 2012 he finished 2 points behind him in the WDC.

That's hardly "eating him for breakfast" now is it?

Then in 2013 he had the worst Formula 1 car Mclaren has ever made so that cannot be judged if you are a reasonable person.

And in 2014 it's plain to see that the "second coming / messiah / danish God" Magnusson who was purported to be the quicker than **** off a shovel....well, just like Jenson destroyed Perez and picked him apart, he's done exactly the same to Ron's Golden Child prodigy Kevin Magnusson....

How people can say, on the back of that, after winning the 2009 WDC no less, that he isn't a top line driver is almost beyond me.

But maybe it's the fact that he just doesn't seem to convey ruthlessness in his persona or demenour ... he just isn't that kind of character infront of the cameras. But we never see Jenson behind closed doors, we never see him in any briefings, we never ever seen him once he's got out of the car after being in contention to win a Grand Prix but being let down by a strategy error and get to see what a ******* off state his is in.

But the people who have seen that side to him have written about it, Ross Brawn no less wrote a prologue about him in which he said that many people don't see his competitive side but that he has seen it, and he's one of the most competitive men he has ever met.

Age isn't on Jensons side, but I think he's still got what it takes to win a WDC given a decent car.
 
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Jenson gets a hard time from a lot of people, it was the brawn that won it etc. If that was the case Rubens would have been much closer and I remember Jenson having to pass several cars at Brazil in order to make up for a poor qualifying which he did with several moves worthy of a world champion. The Red Bull was the better car after Brawn took a chance that their car was good enough to win the championship by about half way through and pretty much gave up development as they could no longer afford to! Not to mention several engineering compromises necessitated by the change from Honda to Mercedes with weeks before the first official test. Jenson does the corporate stuff brilliantly and knows when to toe the line and when to voice his displeasure.

Regarding Honda and power levels, Honda were well known to wish to avoid mechanical breakdown at all costs because, well, Honda's just don't basically. It was estimated that just about every Honda F1 engine was running underpowered compared to what it was capable of, sometimes by as much as 60HP, often more. One rumour I heard was at some tracks they were at least 100HP down on power compared to some others.
 
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Skeeter said:
Lost the will to take the big risks or make the difficult decisions? Yes.
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Forgotten last year already? Replaced what was probably the fastest car at the end of 2012 with a completely new one (including pull rod front suspension) which didnt work.

Skeeter said:
Trouble is, I think Boulier is just as bad. Hes already said that McLaren are going to wait and see what all the top drivers do before deciding on their drivers for next year! What the hell? They should be driving the top drivers movements by making offers and going after them, not just sitting there waiting for them all to sort themselves out, and then wandering late to pick up the scraps.
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There is an organisational issue with McLaren which wont be sorted in a year. Williams have gone through the same thing, and there appears to be a similar problem at Ferrari. Adrian Newey is quoted as saying that he would have needed two years at Ferrari just to get things working.

dannyjo22 said:
He didn't inherit a car in development for 2 years, he started at Honda november 2007. They won the title in 2009.

It was rumoured that Honda was 70+ bhp down on the merc. I'm not sure it would have been enough when red bull caught up. Of course the merc was slapped in the Brawn at short notice and it's hard to tell whether that or the complete lack of grunt the Honda had would have been worse.
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I wasn't aware that Ross Brawn worked for Super Aguri.
 
MissChief said:
Jenson gets a hard time from a lot of people, it was the brawn that won it etc. If that was the case Rubens would have been much closer and I remember Jenson having to pass several cars at Brazil in order to make up for a poor qualifying which he did with several moves worthy of a world champion.
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The entire Brawn season Jenson was pulling off some stunning overtakes. Brazil was definitely the icing on the cake though :D Definitely one of my favourite races ever.
 
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