So the driver of a car which was the best car on the grid for exactly 6 races and beat one driver who had the same car as him and two drivers that had the best car on the track for the remaining 11 races is second rate?
Well I guess in your book if you beat your team mate you're therefore considered first rate
And RBR really had the best car for ALL of the remaining 11 races? Good job stretching things to your liking.
Also, once RBR came on and Mclaren caught up, Jenson showed just how 2nd rate he was. Yeah his race performances were solid in a car that was a very strong "race" car to begin with...but pretty much all of his qualifying performance in the latter half of the season were lack luster to abysmal. Someone like Alonso would never consistently under perform as badly as Jenson did in a car that was STILL that good.
While I don't rate Button as high as the people you mentioned (and it's a thinner margin than most people believe), I do agree that a winner is only as good as the sum of all parts - driver, car, team, etc.
I agree....the margin between them isn't as large as one might think. And let me say that this doesn't discredit his WDC, as of course it is a team effort in this sport which I clearly realize. But that doesn't changes my opinion that JB is not quite on their level.
I think the biggest difference between him and the drivers I mentioned is that they are much more adaptable than he is...especially in qualifying where you have a limited amount of time to dial in your set-up and you sometimes just have to drive around a characteristic you might not like...which IMO is JB's biggest downfall. Even the great Ross Brawn wasn't always able to get things perfectly dialed in for picky Mr. Button. IMO, his ultimate pace when the set-up is perfectly dialed in to his liking is probably within a tenth or two (at the most) of the absolute fastest guys on the grid (on most circuits)...which is still very good, considering the worst drivers on the grid are probably ~ .5 behind.
Arguably, you can say the same of all the drivers. For people who can supposedly win in any car, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen and Massa didn't do a hell of a lot of winning in this year's versions.
Who said they can win in ANY car?
Hamilton and Raikkonen were able to win and do quite well this season in cars that weren't always the number 1 car on the grid in that given race. When Brawn wasn't the CLEAR number 1 car in a given race, Button had a hell of a time claiming a podium...let alone a win! And to include Massa and Alonso in your statement is just lame...
As we all know Massa had his injury before he got to the Grand Prix's where the car would have been in contention to win. Alonso only had a shot at a win at Hungary where he had the wheel fairing fall off as well as a fuel pump problem during the race. His car was never a number 1 car on the grid in ANY race (and we saw how uncompetitive the R29 was toward the end of the year)...his incredible driving performance was what put him up there at Hungary, as well as his impressive performances in the last few races of 2008. I never saw any such brilliance from Button last year....and no, his first 6 races DON'T count in my book 👎 That was simply brilliance from Ross Brawn himself and all of the engineers and designers behind the BGP-001 👍
