F1 Honda: First a Warning, Then a Hiring
I doubt these two incidents are connected in any meaningful way other than closeness in time and a desire for Honda to show something for the butt loads of money they are wasting.
Besides when you threaten your employer with quiting unless improvement is made don’t you have to have something to back up the threat? Like a history that doesn’t include two contract disputes that amounted to nothing more than The Dear Boy crying wolf about quiting?
Anyway, first came Jenson Button’s threat to quit F1 Honda unless drastic improvements were made. He was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying “The car was a complete dog and I’m just not interested in racing like this any more,” and went on to issue a threat to re-evaluate his future unless F1 Honda “demonstrated a marked improvement next season.”
He claims his Honda contract contains option to discuss his future at the end of the season just past. Yeah, whatever. Cry wolf, cry.
Two days later, and following Jense’s real or imagined threat, F1 Honda has pulled Ross Brawn out of Ferrari sabbatical to be a team principal for Honda and will assume “full responsibility for designing, manufacturing, engineering and racing.”
“The team has already done a great job of giving due consideration to its future and has spent a good deal of time putting in place both people and first class engineering resources to achieve its ambitions,” Brawn said.
Brawn cuts to the heart of the matter, F1 Honda has spent more than anyone with the possible exception of Toyota and has little to show for it.
After a promising 2006 that saw Jense capture his first F1 win in Hungry and together with teammate Rubens Barrichello Honda moved up from sixth in 2005 to fourth in the final championship standings.
But its been all down hill since partly due to the miserable Honda aerodynamics and chassis the team as to work with, but The Dear Boy’s attitude can’t be discounted as a factor.
Fellow Briton Nigel Mansell recently said; “Jenson should have won more races, he has under-performed and that is down to him. He had the opportunity and he didn
There was no greater critic of the Dear Boy than I, when he was twisting Frank Williams’s tail over his contract status.
But he’s been a loyal team member ever since, and his quiet acceptance of the crap wagon Honda produced this year went a long way toward erasing the bad memories. Mansell should just keep his opinions to himself, after all he never drove a crap car into victory lane, at least that I can recall. And he crashed many a good car due to his driving “skills”.
I respectfully disagree George; Button has had no choice but to play the role of loyal team member & quiet acceptance, because he has had no choice. He hitched himself to the Honda wagon on a massive contract with a very long time period (something like a five year deal). Further, he has with his unethical reneging on deals & contracts tarred himself with the untrustworthy brush.
Whatever talent he may have he has cemented himself in the 2nd tier driver bracket i.e. good but not great. There is no way he would be ranked by a top team principal as a potential WC. He is ranked in the category below the likes of Kimi, Alonso & Hamilton & is further undermined by the rising stars of Kubica, Heikki, Vettel & Sutil. It would appear that Jenson does not realize his F1 bolt is shot & that his best hope is to stay with Honda & work his butt off. But alas he has learned nothing from his past & is now making hollow threats of jumping overboard. To where Jenson?? Which top team would sign him?
Renault? No way, they have not forgotten the absolute floor wiping that was dealt to him by Fisichella in Button