Formula One Red Bull affected by the Flexi Tests – Jenson Button
The British driver believes that the bodywork flexibility tests carried out by the FIA did not have a very good affect on their rival team Red Bull’s competitiveness. Lewis Hamilton dominated the race at Spa Francorchamps and won, as his teammate Jenson Button was taken out by Sebastian Vettel on lap 16 of the Belgian Grand Prix. Mark Webber was lucky enough to take the second place at Belgium after taking advantage over the retirements of Button and Vettel and the mistake by Robert Kubica benefited him quite dearly as well.
Button suspects that Adrian Newey had to adjust the Red Bull to pass the more strict bodywork flexibility tests even though Red Bull claimed that the RB6 was not quite comfortable on the medium to low downforce nature of Spa Francorchamps.
Jenson Button is one of the most experienced drivers in the sport with a career of almost 10 years now that contains 184 race starts currently. The British driver joined the Formula 1 in 2000 with team Williams and outperformed most of the drivers with his consistent driving in his very first season. Jenson scored 12 points, secured the 8th place in the drivers’ standings, and left the team after an offer from Benetton in 2001. Benetton later became Renault the following year. Jenson struggled to perform with Benetton but improved a lot with Renault the following year, as he scored 14 points to secure the seventh position in the drivers’ championship in 2002. Button signed with the team BAR for 3 years in 2003 and proved his ability of driving under pressure. The British struggled in his first season but recovered to score an amazing 3rd place in the drivers’ standings after scoring 85 points with the help of 10 podiums and a pole position before struggling again the following year. At this point, it seemed that the Jenson is not having consistent season performances. However, his performance with BAR was enough to impress Honda who signed him in 2006 for 3 years. Button had a good first season with the team, as he was able to score 56 points to secure the 6th place but the following two years were the worst two of his career. After two disastrous years, Button joined a new coming team formed by Ferrari’s own Ross Brawn by the name of Brawn GP. This was one of the most amazing seasons of Formula 1 as Brawn GP was able to secure both titles in their very first season. Jenson won the drivers’ title for the team alongside Rubens Barrichello with 95 points with the help of 6 wins, 9 podiums and 4 poles.
Jenson Button is currently in 4th place behind Sebastian Vettel of team Red Bull. Jenson is 35 points short of his teammate Lewis Hamilton who is leading the championship with 182 points ahead of Mark Webber with 179 points. Jenson was optimistic before the Belgian Grand Prix, as McLaren was looking very strong at Spa. However, Jenson’s race was ruined after Vettel made a very silly mistake by putting up an overtaking manoeuvre against the British who were in second position. The MP4-25 of the current world champion was struck in the side by the RB6 forcing Jenson to retire. Even after this incident, Jenson has not given up and believes he can still regain his title this year.
“I think Red Bull's pace was affected by the new tests. I hope the new even more stringent tests for Monza will have even more of an effect. They say they will not have to change anything but they said that here. Watching the car here on the track it was not flexing as much,” said Button.
Webber stated that it may not take much time before the team Red Bull has to favour Webber over Sebastian Vettel behind his title charge. However, Button does not agree with that. “I don't think they will. I think they love Vettel,” he said.
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