This might be the time to inject some technical facts into the debate.
Paddy Lowe was the engineering brain at McLaren. He said this about Lewis before his debut season
"He's tremendously good at controlling a car in oversteer. We saw that from the first moment he got in our car. We saw the data, and on every entry we could see there was a massive correction on the steering, and our normal drivers would have been bitching like hell that the car was undriveable, yet he didn't even pass comment. So with a driver like that, you're better equipped to push the boundaries to new levels. Speaking generically of that characteristic, a lot of the performance limit of a car is set by stability; if you can't hang on to it, you will have to introduce understeer in that zone. But if you have a driver better able to deal with oversteer in those zones that induce it, then you will have a less-understeery car elsewhere and therefore more total grip over the lap. The great drivers over the years - Senna, Schumacher, Mansell - have all had that ability. Like for like compared to other drivers, they want more front end."
So here is the engineer saying it is easier to develop and push to new limits with a driver comfortable with instability, and who doesnt bitch that the car is undriveable for driving miss Daisy
Rear-end instability on corner entry is reportedly the handling characteristic which Jenson Button struggles most to deal with, but as his Brawn team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, demonstrated this year, it is a characteristic which different drivers can cope with to different degrees. Perhaps, then, the type of instability exhibited at times by the Brawn in the second half of the 2009 season, was merely the dynamic instability of a statically stable car.
And here the same article mentions Jenson (still at Brawn)
http://mccabism.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/lewis-hamilton-and-instability.htmlSo fast forward a few years, and McLaren are trying to build a car around Button and have sidelined Lewis. And all of a sudden every weekend Jenson is clueless between free practice when the team listen to his wishes, and quali or the race when he has to drive the same car fast -'I dont know where the grip went, the balance wasnt there, i just dont get it, It felt ok earlier when there was no pressure, but in Q3 i couldnt find grip, I have to go back and look at the data, somethings very strange going on, I just dont get it, my leg warmers were not tight enough etc etc'
So 1 guy needs everything perfect one guy doesnt, thjere is no unlimited testing anymore only a few practice sessions before each race. In betrween the races the engineers have tyo go by the technical feedback from the drivers 'I think more understeer would help us go much faster', 'oops that didnt work, I dont get it, the car was understeering too much'
So Paddy Lowe has to listen to Buttons feedback and ignore Lewis' because Whitmarsh has 'hots' affecting his decision making
And the result?
"We had a detailed technical review yesterday and you cannot help coming out of this thinking we have a competitive car.
“When you have a good possibility to fight for the world championship it’s exciting, It may look like last year’s car, but under the skin it’s completely different,” said Button, who won the last race of 2012 in Brazil. “That’s why it’s so exciting. They’ve changed enough to make a difference. You go into the season aiming to win the world championship and thats’s what we are doing.
“We had some good races and some pretty damn bad races last year. I think the 2013 tyres will work better for my style of driving and for the way this car works.
“I’m the more experienced driver in the team. We have 12 days of testing and I do six and Checo (Perez) does six. We have to learn the car together. The feelings I got from last year and the development direction the car went in are good for my style.”
"Qualifying at times last year was not good at all. I still go back to it being the issue that I have had in my career in terms of getting my tyres working and in the working range," he said.
"I don't know why that is - I must drive differently to everyone else on the grid. We have [b]learned a lot from last season and we have made steps forward[/b].
"The feelings I got last year and the development curve and direction we went in last year is good for my style," he said.
"I had some issues through the season and the great thing with McLaren is they listen to what drivers say.
‘I feel the direction the car has gone in is good for my style. McLaren really listen and I would like to think I have had some involvement in the direction of the car.’
And the bottom line cost of putting lipstick on a
and calling it princess daisy?
Paddy to Mercedes and Mclaren to fight Force India and Torro Rosso
And Button is still considered PEERLESS at McLaren and is leading development in 2014
It's not like now with so much downforce and so little torque that you can just floor it and even if you run a bit wide you just understeer off the circuit. But with the 2014 car if you floor it in a corner like Turn 3 at Barcelona, you don't just drive off, you immediately lose the rear because there is so much torque. It's not a balance issue, you have torque and we've never had that before.
"I don't think it will be more exciting to drive. We are going to be fighting for grip the whole time, so I don't think that will make it more exciting."
It's just a very different feeling with the engine because the revs are so low and you are using very different gears to what we are using now. One of the most important things is to get the sound queuing correct, because if you don't you get completely lost."
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!
