Errr I thought Jenson was confirmed with Honda for '09 but from Thurs press conference seems he isn't.
Though he doesn't seem too worried, probably not squeeky bum time yet.

Asked about whether he'll miss Canada his answers were "yeah nice place" "great nightlife" "nice steaks" and "can have a summer holiday now"

I'm sure he's as commited a driver as all of them, but sometimes comments like these make you wonder ... we shall see what Ross recons :\

He reminds me of his 2001 self a bit this year. This is really no surprise if you consider Honda is unable to build a competent car for two years in a row.

As far as his comments go, I prefer a driver to act like a real person once in a while, instead of listening to the robotic PR-speak nonsense that comes out of most of their mouths. Seriously, who doesn't like a good steak (vegetarians aside) and a lively nightlife?

I hope Jenson does race in 2009 Honda have put all their effort into the 09 car so hopefully it will near the front.

Its much better to PARTAYYY!! than play PS3 with your brother (Lewis say hi )

Jenson is going to be as good as Honda are. Things are not looking good. Expect Alonso to move there in three years when the car is sorted and Button long gone.

Jeson has shone when it has come to interviews ever since the Honda has been crap, he seems very relaxed which is a good trait as long as he isn't so relaxed he becomes reigned.

I hope he is driving next year and Honda can produce a good car and let him race to his potential.

Imagine - Honda build winning 2009 car, Jenson will race in another team

Er yeah....Lewis is screwing one of the Pussycat Dolls. You don't think that's way better than going to any party??? WTF ????

Would that be like paying FW a suitably large amount of money to get out his contract to go to Honda in the first place and Frank using the money to build a better car than Honda?

Isn't that pretty much what happened to Villeneuve!?

It's expected that Jenson will stay with Honda, he has a contract anyway. There's a good chance that Rubens may stay also as there are currently not many options available to replace him unless Fernando goes there which will be a very risky decision. So far there are no rumours linking Jenson with another team or whatever which probably means he's gonna stay where he is. For his sake I hope Honda can finally come up with a decent car next year.

Jenson will be at HONDA next year, I have no doubts about that.

Not quite, he left at the end of 1998 to join BAR in 1999, the 1998 car was off the pace a bit and then it was down hill for William's and BAR since.

Lewis: Hi mursuka80

That wouldn't surprise me... he left Williams and Renault just before they became a race winning outfit.

I do. And he should be worried. Much as I might want him to be in a well funded team with good prospects but, even better, a fast car I don't think either of the drivers have shone particularly brightly this year. Even Rubens podium was luck.

Button? He is still in F1? I haven't seen him this season so far ....

Jenson dead last in FP2. Unless he had a problem, that's really bad He's proved this year he doesnt have the drive or ability to beat Rubens consistently and that doesnt bode well for his future IMO. Ross obviously wants Alonso, the only question remains is if he thinks Jenson will be suitable No.2. Being to Alonso what DC was to Mika would probably suit Jenson quite well.

He did that part in the previous two years.

Dolph refers to when Villeneuve was kicked out of BAR at the end of 2003, just before they made a step forward in 2004 which was their best season with regular podiums.

Fry told motorsport-total.com:Seems Alonso has not given Honda a 'Yes' or 'No' yet.

Given the car, I'll give both drivers the benefit of the doubt this season. I think Jenson proved last year how good he can be in a piece of crap.

What, Alonso is not replacing Kimi after his retirement in 2011?

The great one is going to drive both cars in 2011

maybe even the Beeemer too

I feel for the Honda drivers these days. Driving a bad car is damaging to a driver's stock, since people in F1 seem to have short memories. Button has had to put up with two horrible, almost undriveable cars that past two seasons and doesn't seem to be getting much respect from Ross (at least publicly). The current car is so bad the drivers can't even compete in the wet, where both have previously shone very brightly. Even so, both of them have been very supportive of the team, which is admirable. As tough as it's been for Button, it's worse for Rubens. It appears he's just going to have to sweat it out waiting for Alonso to make a decision to see if he has a ride next year. Even then there's talk of Bruno Senna or some other young hotshoe being considered instead.

Yeah, it's funny that people for example take granted Massa is superior to Button. I'd not be so sure.

Honda will likely retain Jenson but ideally they would have two new drivers.

Ideally? Why would that be? If you said "ideally they would have Alonso and, say, Kubica" I could take you seriously. But "two new drivers" doesn't make much sense.

kawasaki syndrome

IMO Honda should keep one of their drivers, for comparison's sake, and bring in a fresh face to spice things up.

If they want a fast and experienced driver they should keep Barrichello, whos actually faster than Jenson for a while now. Jenson is younger, but Rubinho has been the quicker of the two, there's no doubt.

But, if indeed Bruno Senna is being considered, they will probably not want two Brazilians in the team (although it could actually work. I imagine Rubinho would not refuse to help Bruno out, as he was a big fan of Ayrton).

Did you ever stop to think for just 1 nanosecond that Button may be a part of the sum of the car being crap? It's part of a good drivers resume to be able to help develop a car not just to go around a track fast.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motors...time-to-go.html

New to the team, although if one of them is new to F1 it won't be the end of the world either.

What the?!? I'm going to be nice and assume YOU are new to F1. You might want to check out same races from 2004 or 2006 when Honda had a decent car and then check back.

Blaming the Honda drivers is ridiculous. There's no way that Button and Barrichello are just not finding the performance in the car - that's a lot of experience with a lot of cars. Oh, and the test driver is Alex Wurz, who is known for being almost a combo engineer/driver and has helped develop a few very fast cars himself. To think that some kid could come in and even be able to match these guys is just silly.

Two wins on the trot for Alonso at Renault - that should put the last few nails in the coffin on the idea of him coming to Honda. Good news for Rubens.

Weren't you arguing not long ago that Alonso was just lucky to find himself in good cars?

Hey, I'm sure he's spot on - after all, Button, Barrichello and Wurz don't have much experience to draw on when it comes to developing an F1 car. I'm sure the designers have given them a good car to work with and they're just too stupid to figure out how to develop it.

What exactly happened to Button during the race? One minute he's 10th, the next he's 15th. The strategy was awful, though, long first stint on softs??? They should have gone aggressive and tried a shorter first stint... You never know what can happen, even in that dog of a car.

He was probably too scared to be in front of anyone who had been in front of him on the grid and let them back through.

You're fed-up too, then?

Like your theory I think it was because his first stint was on options. Seemed a strange choice at the time but maybe the team were running this race as a test session

Alonso would be crazy to touch that team - not now that Renault has shown it can develop a car over a season.

BARnone.

From HondaracingF1.com

At the conclusion of an eventful Japanese Grand Prix, the Honda Racing F1 Team’s Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button finished in 13th and 14th positions respectively.

Having both adopted one-stop strategies, the Honda drivers made excellent starts from the penultimate row of the grid, which enabled them to benefit from the mêlée at the front going through Turn 1. By the end of the opening lap Jenson had climbed seven places to be in 11th position, with Rubens in 14thplace.

Jenson began the race on the Bridgestone option tyre and suffered from graining in the early part of the first stint. Rubens took the prime tyre for the opening stint and was able to make better progress.

Jenson pitted on lap 37. He switched to the prime tyre and rejoined the race in 14th place. Rubens followed him into the pits a lap later and emerged from his stop just ahead of his team-mate having taken on the option tyre. They remained in these positions until the end of the 67 lap race.
"I had a great start to the race today, passing three or four cars on the way down to the first corner and was able to hold the position well,” confirmed Rubens. “Unfortunately I was then hit from behind by Fisichella which damaged the rear end of the car and affected the balance for the remainder of the race. From then on, we were really limited by the poor performance and pace of the car this weekend. We did all that we could but were not able to make any headway up the field."
Jenson had a similar story: "The race began really well for me and I was running inside the top ten at the first corner after making a great start. Unfortunately going with the option for my first stint didn't work well and I really suffered from this in the early laps. I was passed by a few cars around the first lap and from then on had graining on the front and rear tyres which meant I was slow through the corners and we couldn't compete on straightline speed, particularly with a heavy fuel load. Once we put the prime tyre on for the second stint, the balance was much better, but by then it was impossible to catch up and make progress."
"Given that our car is not well-suited to this track, and our current package, this was always going to be a difficult race for us, especially from our grid positions,” concluded Team Principal Ross Brawn. “We took a gamble starting Jenson on the option tyre, looking for a good start and end of first stint performance. Jenson did indeed get a good start off the line, making up seven places, but then the tyres quickly grained and he lost all of that advantage. This was the risk associated with this strategy. Rubens also had a good start but appeared to be experiencing problems with the car balance after he was struck from behind by the Force India car of Fisichella. As our focus has already switched to 2009 I'm afraid we anticipate a tough time until the end of the season, but we will reap the benefit of this decision later next year."
The Honda Racing F1 Team now has little time to rest in its homeland because the team’s 30 tonnes of equipment has to be moved across the East China Sea ahead of next weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Given the current speed (or lack thereof) of the car, putting both drivers on a one-stop makes the most sense. The hope is that the safety car comes out right after the one and only pitstop. Since Fuji is a track that is unlikely to have a safety car situation there wasn't a lot of hope though, but there's almost no other scenario that could have resulted in them coming close to the points, unfortunately.

Agreed. The only thing that will make him move from Renault at this point is if the corporate bigwigs decide to slash the racing budget in light of production layoffs. Personally I think that would be a mistake - I'm sure these last two wins are a source of pride to Renault employees worldwide.

No penalty for Fisi outbraking himself?

It's just a matter of choice. Renault choose to develop the 2008 car till late Honda did not. Alonso will not base his choice on that.
He will try to get an idea of what Renault can do for next year (development budget, how far they are with the 2009 program, people etc.).
If he believes that Ross Brawn's plans for 2009 look better, he will go to Honda. If not he will stay with Renault. Simple (or actually not that simple).

Wild idea - what if Button moved to Renault to partner Alonso...

That sure is a wild idea. Renault is looking a lot better these days, especially since there's talk of "equalizing" the engines over the winter. I don't think Flav and Jense are the best of buddies, however, and Button would have to come to the conclusion that Honda isn't going to jump to the front next year. Not likely, but I for one would love to see these two go head to head in a good car. It would easily be the best driver lineup on the grid IMO.

I could see it working, though imagine Alonso being spanked by Button on the track - I would guess Alonso would explode!

Would be an interesting pairing and it would bring out the true Button - expose his true value.

Very unlikely to happen. Besides, it would create a huge problem for Honda too.

I'm not sure I know what the problem is/has been with Flav and Button though - could you elaborate?