**Button Beware at BAR**

[alex_gt]

I found this story on the Net :computer:, although it's a really interesting insight to F1 drivers and Teams it's a Big Worry for Button after all he's gone through

As Vat_Man announced he will be leaving :renault: to go to BAR. Now you'd think racing along-side Jaques would be a good influence right? Think again:

JPM WARNING FOR BUTTON

Juan Pablo Montoya reckons Jacques Villeneuve could destroy Jenson Button psychologically next season.

Montoya has predicted that Villeneuve will use every trick in the book to make sure he has the upper hand over Button at BAR next year.

Montoya told the BBC: "Jacques is going to do that for sure at the beginning.

"Jenson will be quicker than Jacques in every single test and when they get to the first race, Jacques will probably outqualify him by a second or something.

"Typical Jacques. And then Jenson's going to start wondering, what happened? Where did that come from? That's the way it happens and if Jenson doesn't keep his cool....

"Jacques can raise his game quite a lot, I don't think he's pushing as hard as he could. There's a lot left in him."

Montoya is worried that Button does not have the mental strength to cope with Villeneuve’s antics.

He said: "I think Jenson's good. but I think Jacques gets somebody [as a team-mate] who wouldn't be the strongest guy in the head so that he can have the upper hand.

"Probably in two years Jenson would be OK, but at the moment he is a guy who is very, very, very fragile in the head."

The French Canadian has a history of trying to unsettle team-mates. Damon Hill claimed that Villeneuve tried to outpsyche him in 1996 while he destroyed Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1997 and 1998.

Montoya saw the latter at first hand as Williams test driver in 1998.

Has anyone heard about this before? It sounds like it's been kept behind closed doors in the past 🤬, and only the :bmw: Monster :fdevil: has had the honesty and Gut to speak out about it.....:thumbsup:

What's everyone think of BAR money :2cents: snatching Jaques now? :rscared:

Should we worry for Jenson? :cold:

Please excuse the mistake in the 1st Poll option, 'bead' should be, 'bad', if a Mod sees this, could you correct it?

 

[-Fred-]

err... after seeing Jacques racing since 1993, it's fairly simple to say he would work with Jenson, and not against him.

it's all part of the game... Rubens must feel terrible too, you know.


personally, i'd like to see Villeneuve and Montoya together at Williams... to see if Juan can prove his theory.

 

[Talentless]

Is Jenson actually going to BAR? Poor Britain, Coulthard is not that reliable for bringing the Championship back and now Button may be doomed.

 

[vat_man]

It will be interesting. I'm sure Jacques is more than capable of that sort of thing. I think after that awful year Jenson had at Benetton he's probably a lot psychologically tougher than that first year at Williams.

Montoya's not above that sort of stuff, either, mind you.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

It's an interesting comment for Montoya to make. There's certainly a grain of truth to it, but I', not sure it's malice-led. The simple fact of the matter is that Jacques only cares about racing and racing to win, and he doesn't really try when not in that situation. Jenson would do well to be realistic in looking for comparisons between himself and Jacques, because it is quite likely that the performances Jacques puts in in testing will not be representative of his true ability.

It's also evident in the fact that Jacques doesn't really care who his team-mate is. He's not exactly been blessed with the most talented team-mates, with Panis being, for me, the pick of the bunch. I think his offhand response to the Button question was more indicative of his general nonchalance than any ill feeling or malicious intent.

I think that they could work well together.

Nice one getting a pic of Connie in though, she's lovely!

 

[alex_gt]

Mind Panis has beaten Jaques befor in qualifying GG?

 

[alex_gt]

Mind Panis has beaten Jaques before in qualifying GG?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by alexy2k
Mind Panis has beaten Jaques before in qualifying GG?

Absolutely, which goes to show that perhaps JPM's comments were somewhat outdated. However, you've always got to wonder if Jacques' motivation is letting him down.

Panis is a separate issue: his reluctance to learn English in the mid 90s destroyed his career.

 

[vat_man]

Well, that and two smashed legs at Canada...

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
Well, that and two smashed legs at Canada...

Well, I was thinking about that when I wrote my previous post, and came to the conclusion that the shunt probably didn't affect him that much, in that he didn't lose any of his speed. I mean, sure, it took him a while to get back into the cockpit and get back to his normal self, but we're only really talking about the same length of time that MS took, which isn't that long. And if you want to look at a driver who's career was ruined by crashing, you've only to look at your very own Big Accident Racing's Ricardo Zonta, now in Spanish Formula Nissan!

No, what ruined Olive's career was his refusal to learn English, which led him to stay at Prost/Ligier too long, and made him unattractive to team bosses. I'm quite sure that if he'd gone to, say Stewart in 1996, instead of Johnny Herbert, you'd see him now as the second driver in the Ferrari team, and I reckon he'd be giving MS a much greater run for his money than RB.

 

[vat_man]

True - but given the quality of the Ligier/Prost that year (although the tyres did help) I think it cost him a lot of points and possibly another win. I was really disappointed when that happened - you just need to remember Wurz's performance later in the year to see the potential of that car.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

No argument there. After all, the 1996 Ligier was very much the same car as the Benetton. Another one of Big Flav's megadeals.

Sheesh, and the youth of today are surprised by the Alonso fiasco!!!

 

[vat_man]

Hey yeah - I'd forgotton about the Ligienetton days! Man, 1993-97 were some pretty wild days, hey?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
Hey yeah - I'd forgotton about the Ligienetton days! Man, 1993-97 were some pretty wild days, hey?

Certainly were! We had Ferrari trying to convince us they were a racing team, and Johnny Herbert & Damon Hill trying to convince us that they were racing drivers!!

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by GilesGuthrie


Certainly were! We had Ferrari trying to convince us they were a racing team, and Johnny Herbert & Damon Hill trying to convince us that they were racing drivers!!

...and didn't Damon get found out by grooved tyres!!

 

[Dudley]

Panis's accident was 1997 not 6. At which point he was actually very high up in the championship. That was the first "prost" year. Stewart's first year was 1997 too. They didn't sign Herbert till 1999 though not 1996.