F1 TIMETABLE
Fri 16 October 2009
Friday Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Friday Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30

Sat 17 October 2009
Saturday Practice 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00

Sun 18 October 2009
Race 14:00

Sao Paulo
Race Date: 18 Oct 2009
Number of Laps: 71
Circuit Length: 4.309 km
Race Distance: 305.909 km
Lap Record: 1:11.473 - JP Montoya (2004)

yay, soo looking forward to this race, i would like Barrichello 1st, Hamilton 2nd, Button 3rd!

I bet that Button finishes an uninspiring 7th.

I would be nice to see Ruben's win his home race, and with the points system Button coming home 3rd would clinch the championship for him (and, of course, Brawn).

But the Redbull will go very quickly, especially as they got an extra test session with Webber at Suzuka (okay, a different track, but they played with settings and front wing configurations intended for Interlagos).

I suspect that, yet again, RB and JB will have to drive out of their skin to get in the top 5 come the end of the race. Sadly, that will mean even more people will think JB is driving badly, rather than getting the most out of the by-far-not-the-best-car-on-the-grid-anymore Brawn.

agreed tris, i think part of the problem with button is that when they listen to his radio transmissions in a race where he's off the front runner's pace, he always sounds like he's about to burst into tears or jump out of the car and lie on the floor having a tantrum.

most people who follow racing know he's pretty laid back but the radio unfortunatly creates an entirely different image of him for the casual tv fan

EDIT: just to add, from the point of keeping everything exciting i'd prefer button not to finsh in the points and barachello and vettel to finsh in the top 2, that order for sentimental reasons, other way round to close it even further.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I suspect that, yet again, RB and JB will have to drive out of their skin to get in the top 5 come the end of the race. Sadly, that will mean even more people will think JB is driving badly, rather than getting the most out of the by-far-not-the-best-car-on-the-grid-anymore Brawn.

Yes, the Brawn is no longer dominant. However when you see Lewis Hamilton getting 4th in Bahrain with a terrible car (and scoring points in the first 4-5 races), and then going on to win races convincingly in a car still not anywhere near being the 'best' despite aerodynamic improvements it does make some people think Button is under-performing considering the fundamentally good car he has.

While it does remain irrelevant how well Hamilton has done, or Kimi in THAT Ferrari, Jenson Button does seem to struggle when his car isn't anything other than perfect.

Whether that matters or not I do not know. If Button wins the WDC hen that's that

but maybe it matter to Brawn who might be thinking about the future of his team knowing next year he needs a fighter in the car because he will no longer have the best overall car package.

To be fair, against the only vaguely valid yardstick - that being his teammate - Button's been doing pretty poorly recently

Perhaps hes the Tim Henman of motorsport, shines early on but falls to pieces when the pressure is on.

Perhaps that a bit unfair, Button did his job perfectly while under pressure earlier in the year, the car definately has to have something to do with this.

I think Barrichello got mad and stopped sharing his setup :P. Hence why Barrichello is doing well and Button not so well lately xD.

He's not exactly far being RB in qualifying, and is consistently quicker in each race.

Hamilton has been driving well for some of this year, granted, but I think KERS has flattered their car of late. It would be interesting to see how well they'd do at Monaco or Barcelona with the current cars. But it does seem that, at times, Hamilton uses KERS to get a good grid slot, a good start, and then to defend being overtaken - but not always, as he has driven away from everyone once or twice (once only, fuel corrected, I think).

Regarding JB's radio - is it just poor quality? He does sound odd, even when he was saying how good the car was in Turkey. Either a quality/transmission issue, or because his cheeks are squashed up by his helmet lining more than others!

Quote from tristancliffe :

Regarding JB's radio - is it just poor quality? He does sound odd, even when he was saying how good the car was in Turkey. Either a quality/transmission issue, or because his cheeks are squashed up by his helmet lining more than others!

nah hes just whiney
remember him complaining about how bad the car had gotten over the season over the radio? nevermind that its a completely useless radio message its also quite unprofessional


looking at the map of the track... who willing to bet that next year the pitlane will go all the way round to sector 3?

The radio transmissions are just picked out by directors/produces for TV. rarely do they give a true reflection of pit-to-car communication

Quote from Shotglass :

nah hes just whiney
remember him complaining about how bad the car had gotten over the season over the radio? nevermind that its a completely useless radio message its also quite unprofessional


looking at the map of the track... who willing to bet that next year the pitlane will go all the way round to sector 3?

Hes a racing driver, what do you expect.

As for the pitlane, before long Bernie will have made it a required feature of every track that the pitlane must take an uneccesarily long route under the track Abu Dhabi style.

Quote from Shotglass :

nah hes just whiney
remember him complaining about how bad the car had gotten over the season over the radio?

I think he just said 'how is this car so bad right now' [or words to that effect] in reference to the fact that the car was handling terribly. And as others have said, what is broadcast on TV is a very small window on the actual reality that the drivers are describing to their teams during the races.

To be quite honest, regardless of the driver, I'd rather the honest but whiny radio transmissions over the super-slick, super-professional Hamilton-esque, characterless radio transmissions. But that's just me.

Quote from Mp3 Astra :

I think he just said 'how is this car so bad right now' [or words to that effect] in reference to the fact that the car was handling terribly. And as others have said, what is broadcast on TV is a very small window on the actual reality that the drivers are describing to their teams during the races.

if anyone can remember the race and roughly which lap it happened in ill be happy to check back what exactly he said but i do remember him going on about it for a bit longer than that
either way both what he said and how he said it came off extremely whiney to me
also gave me the feeling that he wasnt ever really trying and just relying on the cars dominance for the first half of the season

Look at his Monaco Quali lap and say that again.

Quote from Shotglass :

if anyone can remember the race and roughly which lap it happened in ill be happy to check back what exactly he said but i do remember him going on about it for a bit longer than that
either way both what he said and how he said it came off extremely whiney to me
also gave me the feeling that he wasnt ever really trying and just relying on the cars dominance for the first half of the season

Check the race edits on formula1.com, I'm pretty sure the one of the race in question has that radio transmission.

I think it was something along the lines of ''How the hell can this car be so bad right now?!''

I saw it as him being competitive and just shocked by how fast the car went from complet domination to being horrible to drive... I think it's normal for a driver to complain when things turn to bad and stops them from winning.

yes it is normal but no it isnt at all professional to do this in front of all the viewers

Quote from Shotglass :

yes it is normal but no it isnt at all professional to do this in front of all the viewers

who the hell cares.

*sigh* Why is it nobody can ever be good anymore? There always has to be some kind of excuse for their success. If Sakon Yamamoto won the F1 world championship driving a Fiat Uno you'd still say it was the car that gave him the advantage or some other irrelevant bullshit along those lines.

Most Formula 1 world champions have had the best car and have got the best out of it, Schumacher and Senna won their championships in the best cars, yet aparrently its alright to label them as 'legends'. :rolleyes:

And once upon a time racing drivers were far less professional than they are today, and they were far more interesting too.

Quote from Intrepid :

While it does remain irrelevant how well Hamilton has done, or Kimi in THAT Ferrari, Jenson Button does seem to struggle when his car isn't anything other than perfect.

His driving style really needs a car that is set up perfectly with absolutely no understeer. If the car is perfect, his driving is absolutely superb. Unfortunately his driving style does not tolerant imperfect setup unlike the other more aggressive driving style.

Ironically there are 3types of drivers. A Senna, A Prost and An Ide. Ide obviously is the type of driver that are crap, Prost drivers are the ones that can only really perform when the car is top dollar and a Senna type driver is one that pushes and pushes, even when the car is shit, and still gets a good result.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

His driving style really needs a car that is set up perfectly with absolutely no understeer. If the car is perfect, his driving is absolutely superb. Unfortunately his driving style does not tolerant imperfect setup unlike the other more aggressive driving style.

I don't think this is the case, at the start of the season when mclaren where horrid i think the car was just too bad for a driver to fix the problem really.

and Hamiltons style is probably the most if not one of the most aggressive driving styles, a thing that would would prefer a car on the understeer side of things if anything.

I'll be honest.

I want Barrichello to win the championship, and here's why.

Vettel's carrer started in 2007.
Button's carrer started in 2000.
Barrichello's carrer started in 1993.

Button should win next year, though. :P