Rogue Profile of Jenson Button

“I’m big time disappointed. The car wasn’t fantastic at the beginning of the race, with high-speed understeer and oversteer in the slower corners,” he explained. “We didn’t manage to adjust the car to correct it during the pitstops, and then I had the hydraulic problem. The steering got very heavy and it was as if somebody had switched the electric off towards the end! As for the Raikkonen incident, I didn’t see anything – I was too busy trying to avoid the wing on the track!”

“I think I just got a little excited at the start! Once you lift off the throttle, the launch control doesn’t work any more, so I had to wait for everybody to go by before I could get going. After that, I was a bit surprised to be penalised as well, but once I got into clear air the car was working well,” Button explained.

Thirty minuets into the qualifying session, Button span his Renault in the same
corner where he had crashed in the morning’s first practice session. He was able
to gain control of his car Renault but as it span back across the track its presence
forced Barrichello to abandon his first qualifying attempt.

"Ninth is OK, and Jarno did a great job to finish sixth. I did my best
lap on the first run, and I’m not quite sure why the other two weren’t as quick,"
Jenson said. "Obviously, I was pushing hard, that’s why I spun on the
first run, but maybe the set-up wasn’t quite as good in the hot conditions. Even
though I’m starting ninth, I think we can do something from there."

On lap thirty, sixth placed Jenson Button was coming under increasing pressure
form Kimi Raikkonen as they approached backmarker, Anthony Davidson. Davidson
dutifully moved off line to let the Renault and McLaren past but as he moved off
the racing line he kicked up some dust. Button claimed to be distracted and lost
control of his Renault when he put his right rear wheel off the kerb and on to
the grass, the car was pitched into a spin and came to a rest in the gavel. The
car was stuck and Button’s race was at an end.

"I’ve had a tough weekend here. We made the decision to start on used
tyres because we were worried about blistering in the hot conditions,"
Jenson explained. "The start was pretty good and I went round the outside
at the first corner, which meant I had the inside line for the left- hander. I
touched Montoya on the exit, but it didn’t damage the car. Then I just started
gradually losing grip, and I had a lot of oversteer. Just before my first pitstop,
Davidson went off in front of me and after avoiding the incident, I put the right-rear
wheel on the kerb as I was braking for the corner. It was simply my mistake."

"It was a very tiring race and the car was so difficult to drive. We were
a lot slower than the Renault today and when the car is that hard to handle it’s
very difficult to stay in front," he said. "I had very low grip,
not just on the rear but also on the front, and the oversteer got progressively
worse towards the end; it just destroyed the tyres. I held off Jarno for as long
as I could, then on the last corner I braked where I normally would and the rear
just locked up. I went straight on and Michael was able to get through. It’s very
disappointing because I was fighting hard to hold on to 5th. We got some points
though and that’s the main thing so I’m optimistic for Brazil."

Jenson Button used the Thursday press conference as a platform to rework his theories
about the previous races pit-stop gaff. Villeneuve offered a fierce response,
slating his teammate in a manner in a manner that would have made Howard Stern
blush. Button struck back, branding his teammate’s "weak" comments as
"pathetic."

"I haven’t said so much. I’ve just said the truth," Jenson
said. "He has always been outspoken about drivers but I don’t think so
many have answered back … the things he said, it’s just pathetic. I’ve got no
problem with it (the feud). I think it’s quite funny to read and to watch really,
because it’s happened so many times before. But it’s Jacques; it’s the way he
is. And he’s always been very outspoken and I think he thinks that’s the way to
go racing. But it’s got nothing to do with racing at all and there’s no reason
for it in any way. There’s no reason to be horrible to someone if there’s no reason
to be. Some people think you have to be for whatever reason, I don’t know why
… I don’t think anyone can really understand him. It just proves to me that
he’s the way he is. I always thought he was a very difficult team mate to work
with and I think he’s been that."

BAR’s team boss, Dave Richards was questioned about his driver’s bitter feud
but insisted that he would not intervene, unless it began to harm the team.

"I very much have the opinion that the drivers should be individuals
and characters in their own free right," he said. "I don’t believe
in gagging them for some corporate speak. I let them get on with things. Unless
of course it goes one step too far and starts to damage the team. These things
have to be allowed to sort themselves out. You can’t resolve things for people."

After a great race in Malaysia, it looked like Jenson Button was going to finally
start to exert some kind of authority over Jacques Villeneuve but his physiological
advantage was not long lived.

Normally, in the wet, you would bet your money on Jenson’s smooth style over
Jacques’ aggression. However, the Englishman cracked in Friday’s qualifying session.
As Button started his lap he looked to be in control, driving clean, precise lines
until he touched the glacier-like white line that demarcated the edge of the track
as he exited turn five.

The BAR05 was caught in a "tank slapper" as soon as its right-rear
tyre lost grip. Neither Button or Honda’s traction-control were able keep the
car pointing in any one direction and the Englishman switched ends before smashing
through the polystyrene markers at the side of the track.

Button recovered his car, leaving a crash site that looked like a Christmas
snow scene. If he had had any thoughts about trying to complete the lap in order
to set a time, they were promptly quashed. Before he could complete the lap the
car shed its damaged rear wing which was not surprising given it had just been
used as a tool for "marker demolition. "Discretion got the better part
of valour and he pitted in time to watch the Marshals cleat the scene of the accident
under the safety of the red flag.

"It was a very eventful session for me! Quite scary really! I had a lot
more oversteer than this morning and the car was quite snappy coming onto the
main straight at the start of the lap. Then I had a big moment coming out of turn
five when I put a wheel on the white line," Jenson explained. "I
tried to catch it but with such a damp track it was impossible and I took out
some trackside markers in the process. That obviously damaged the rear wing and
with that, hanging off I had no option but to abandon the lap. Despite the conditions
today you still have to continue to push. The problem is that you don’t really
know where the limit is. The track was drier than this morning but there was still
a lot of standing water. We definitely need more than one set of wet tyres for
these conditions."

On lap thirty-three Jenson Button lost round three of his war with Jacques Villeneuve
when he became another victim of the treacherous turn three.

Coming out of turn-three the rear of his BAR05 lost grip and the car began
to oversteer into the corner as Button applied the throttle. The Englishman instinctively
applied opposite lock but he unwittingly pitched the car into a slide.

The BAR snapped in the opposite direction, slid across the track then slammed
into the tyre barrier, nose first. The car sustained heavy damaged but Button
was able casually to walk away from the massive accident. Meanwhile, back in the
pit plane, the safety car accelerated away for its fourth tour of duty.

"Everyone can say "what if"?" he said. "I
was running fifth ahead of Raikkonen when I went off and we were fuelled to the
finish, so if I hadn’t made that mistake, who knows? But then I guess there are
a lot of other people who can say the same thing. The car was working well, the
tyres were good and we had the right strategy. On that corner, the water runs
off the banking on to the circuit, so we were bound to get caught out there. I
just caught the standing water a little too much. I tried to save it but that
just sent me into the tyre wall. I went in quite heavily and my back is aching
a little bit but, as we saw, it could have been much worse. It’s disappointing
but that’s the way it goes."