Why was Jenson Button kept in the F1 doldrums?
The reason we haven’t seen him in the top cars is because he’s been looking to mount strong competition in the cars he’s been in. Just take take his 2004 season. In response to most of the Button bashing; Jenson Button’s been driving well for a long time, it’s just he’s been flying under the radar in terms of media coverage unlike Lewis. Okay, the last two years haven’t been great but, he’s been driving in a terrible car. However his career is now tainted by the huge media coverage that Lewis got, and that’s made him look bad. In 2008 Honda planned to make big improvements but, it didn’t happen on the race track. His car just didn’t have it, there was no pace in it atall.
You have to go back to 2004. Back then, Honda was called BAR. It was one of the underperforming teams until 2004 when they came second in the Constructors. Button, wanting a seat in a competitive team, had signed a contract with Williams in early 2004 to drive for them in 2005. Williams back then was one of the top teams. As it turned out, 2004 was a good year for BAR and a bad one for Williams. Suddenly, Button didn’t want to go to Williams because they were no good. He figured that, with Honda’s huge financial and technical backing, BAR was the team to be in. He kicked and screamed and annulled the contract he had with Frank Williams (BAR had to pay) and ended up staying with BAR. Come 2005, BAR had a shocker of a year. (so did Williams by the way). 2006 was no better, neither was 2007 nor 2008. Honda bought the BAR team outright in 2006 so everyone thought the team will be on the rise in 2007. Didn’t happen. Ross Brawn went to Honda in 2008, and again, everyone thought 2008 will be
