Alonso & Button

[frostblade]

Why do all the rags keep saying everyone thought replacing Button with Alonso was a bad idea? I don't think anyone thought that was a bad idea, rather it was the fact that Trulli should have been the one kicked out, because he did a worse job than Jenson last year.

Is that the general opinion here?

Also on a side note, I've been thinking about that DC/Button incident yesterday. In The Times today, Jenson reckons he was ahead of DC before the corner, but DC appeared in the corner and just turned into him. This might seem a bit odd after DC said he didn't see Jenson, but from Jenson's point of view it does make sense. Jenson comes out of the pits ahead of DC, at this point he's doing about 80kph, DC 280kph, so DC is catching. Jenson accerlates towards the corner, DC comes down his outside, as they brake DC starts to go past and turns in straight into Jenson. What I don't understand is DC saying he didn't see Jenson - if Jenson did come out of the pits, DC must have started out behind him.

[ASCII Man]

He probably didn't expect Button to jump right in on the inside Ã* la Damon Hill...

[Red]

"Replacing" Button for Alonso WAS a bad idea. Bringing Alonso was a great idea, but Trulli should be the one replaced, not Button.

[mac]

I personally think Flavio did exactly the right thing. Trulli was all over Button from around midseason last year. And if it were not for his car's poor reliability during races, he would have been a very good chance of scoring more points than JB.

The thing that irritates me about the Button fans is that the excuse they gave for his Fisi-flogging at Benetton was that he was new to the team and needed time to acclimatise, while Fisi was already ensconsed (they also neglect the fact that the less experienced and equally new to the team Webber was regularly quicker than him in testing). Yet when Trulli comes to the team, he is branded useless straight away - absolutely NO time to acclimatise.

Yes, Alonso appears to be a long way ahead of Trulli at the moment, but he has also been spared a lot of the bad luck that Jarno so often receives.

For the record, I believe Button is a very strong driver. I just think Jarno is a slightly better option.

[frostblade]

I'm not sure if it was a bad idea - Alonso is very probably better than Jenson. Just look at the way he's outqualified Trulli this year, when Jenson couldn't manage it last year. Although thinking about it last year, I did notice that it usually took Trulli until his 4th run to go faster with Jenson, whereas Jenson would sometimes struggle to go faster than his initial time, so the new qualifying may suit in more in this respect.

I'm not quite sure what you mean ®îjñtjûh, my point was that Jenson was already there. Maybe DC was just blind? Or thought he deserved to be ahead like he did with Bernoldi?

[Thorstone]

Originally posted by Red
"Replacing" Button for Alonso WAS a bad idea. Bringing Alonso was a great idea, but Trulli should be the one replaced, not Button.

I'm agree and Two Renault on podium,in Barcelona

[ASCII Man]

Originally posted by frostblade
Maybe DC was just blind? Or thought he deserved to be ahead like he did with Bernoldi?

I guess the latter.

[Rick]

I'm with you mac. Although he never said it straight, I got the feeling Webber felt he had Button covered when they were both at Benetton. Having said that I think they all - Button, Webber, Trulli and Alonso are worthy of top drives. Move over DC, Ralf and Rubens!

[frostblade]

Hmm mac, I think you're ignoring something there - it's common practice for teams to withhold new parts from drivers who are leaving the team, so I wouldn't be surprised if Jenson was behind because of this. He probably did less testing mileage too towards the latter part of the year. However Jenson wins overall because he scored more points.

You've also missed the point with the Fisi thing too - I should point out that I think Fisi is a better driver than Jenson, but that Benetton was a very bad car, and Fisi coped with it much better than Jenson did, who had no experience of bad cars up until then. I think F1 Racing said that it was very pitch sensitive, and as Jenson tends to brake later than Fisi, this was upsetting the car a lot more so he had to adapt, and he was getting closer towards the end of the year. Trulli, who has some experience of bad cars (like Minardi's) came into the team and didn't cope with it anywhere near as well as Fisi had the previous year. I don't buy the esconsced in the team thing anyway, because as far as I know the B201 was a completely new car, so experience with better previous Benettons doesn't really help in my view.

I'm not making excuses here, for while I am a Jenson fan (and I think he is the best British driver ATM), I like to think I am balanced enough to concede when I think a driver is better than him. Ralf was not, Fisi was, Trulli was not and Villeneuve, I'm not sure yet, it's pretty close. It's hard to tell really as JV's had a few more mechanical dramams.

[Bononi]

That's hard to tell that Trulli should be dropped instead of Button. Probably Button would have the same bad luck as Trulli.