#19; Saluting the Loyal Family Pt. 2

Earlier this week I began a two parter blog entry delving into the realms of loyalty within the sport I love to watch, Formula 1. It’s not the easiest subject to discuss I find because we as the fans can never truly see the full side of an F1 driver in modern times due to teams almost providing the words for their drivers to speak rather than the drivers being given full reign to speak their mind should they want to. However, as I previously stated last week, I find this subject quite an interesting area of study. How loyal can you be to a team but have the offer of more money staring down at you from another source? Would a team matter that much to you should a faster, better team come looking for your services? There are many questions that maybe I cannot answer but I am certainly willing to discuss, and in this second parter, I am going to start with the current leader of the world championship in 2009, Jenson Button.

There is absolutely no doubt about it – Jenson is having the Formula 1 season of his life so far. Out of the 8 races we’ve had in 2009, the man has won 6 of them and got 7 consecutive podiums from Australia to Turkey. We’re hearing a lot of famous names from the past being mentioned alongside his name – Schumacher, Clark, Prost and others. If Jenson does become champion (and perhaps even if he doesn’t) by the end of the season other teams will be fighting for his signature – but as much as the rumours suggest big name teams like Ferrari or McLaren want him, is their reputation enough to pull Button away from Brawn? Let’s look at the facts; Jenson has been a part of his team since 2003 where he joined them in their British American Racing days. It’s very much been a rollercoaster ride for Jenson, with seasons of success in 2004 and 2006 but then the depressingly slow final 2 years of Honda’s recent run in Formula 1.

He certainly has a history with conflicts with teams though, as we saw with the Williams dispute in 2004. For those not in the know, Jenson was driving for BAR Honda but his entry into formula 1 was through Sir Frank Williams’ team (obviously Williams F1), and whilst they allowed him to drive for other teams such as Renault and BAR, they kept a form of option for Jenson to return to the team in the future. In 2004, Jenson himself stated that he planned to rejoin Williams for the 2005 season but BAR were on a rising path in terms of performance. As stated previously, he had an excellent season in 2004 – despite no wins yet in his Formula 1 career, he had achieved his first pole position and finished 3rd in the driver’s championship. Williams were not necessarily a step down at the time as in 2004 they had managed to win with Montoya, but they had finished lower in the championship than BAR Honda. Jenson was obviously stuck between the two, a contract he had signed and the possibility of a future with BAR. Eventually, BAR ended up getting Jenson’s services and it is reported he paid £20 million to Sir Frank Williams in order to clear the conflict. This boils down to a very big area though if true – money.

Was Jenson simply offered more from Dave Richards to stay at BAR? He soon signed a new multi year contract after the dispute was over, and a huge payment was involved in order to stay at BAR so this theory is definitely possible and critics of Jenson will say money was the reason he stayed. You can easily accuse myself of being biased which I do appreciate is going to be because of my support towards Brawn GP and long time support of Honda, but I still see Jenson as an honest driver within the grid. The past few years Honda have had an awful time struggling with many issues and after years of good performances and that fantastic first win for Jenson in 2006, he could have easily given up on the project Honda had after 2007’s disastrous year and furthermore in 2008 after another poor year. In November 2008, Honda CEO Nick Fry had confirmed Button had signed a new deal with the team despite all this (and of course no knowledge into the pulling out of the constructor in December 2008), and again when Ross Brawn bought out the team and before this news was confirmed, it could have been very easy for Jenson to jump ship to other places. However, he stuck with the team and it’s paid off without a doubt.

So what about the future for the Frome Flyer, will he stick with what he has now or will he be tempted by bigger and better offers after this season? At the moment the sport is in a grand state of uncertainty due to the every ongoing war between the masters at the FIA and the minions at FOTA, or so it feels. There is no guarantee that we will even see teams like Brawn GP in the sport in 2010, although I personally feel that there will still be a championship in F1 that we have now and will continue to have for years to come. Aside from my own point of view though, Jenson will get offers. If the money is right, teams will bid a lot for him because of his reputation as a smooth, easy and fast driver, and because of how this season has gone for him so far. I still feel that he will stay though – he obviously is comfortable with his place in Brawn GP, and his previous history with the entire setup with Honda and BAR of course. He has stuck with them through thick and thin and they have rewarded  both him and Rubens with the most wonderful car. You have to remember that despite the car being in development for over a year, this is still a brand new independent team set up a month before the start of the season, and despite a good but not excellent Silverstone showing, the car’s performance has been mind-blowing as has Jenson’s drives. Arguments have arisen whether if this was Schumacher dominance we would all be complaining, and it is a fair point as 2002’s year of Schumacher caused much upset, but Jenson has finally got the car behind him to prove he is worthy of being a champion if it happens. For the future, he will remain at Brawn in whatever form the sport becomes, I’m sure of it. Constantly he has shown his support to what the team are doing, and he has a fantastic relationship with his teammate Rubens Barrichello (off the track of course, on track it’s every man for himself as it should be!) and most importantly for him as a driver, the team are obviously willing to support him through whatever lies ahead.

Formula 1 isn’t just about the guys at the front though, there are 20 drivers on that grid and everyone deserves to be considered. The next subject of loyalty I want to talk about is with underperforming world champions, for different reasons though perhaps. Renault managed to get back double world champion Fernando Alonso into a slower car from McLaren in 2008 after a controversial year at McLaren, whilst Kimi Raikonnen has never really shown that lightning speed he produced in his championship year of 2007. Alonso, for me, is still the most skilled driver in Formula 1. His car last season was very much a huge disappointment in comparison to that brilliant machine he used to fight alongside Michael Schumacher; it was much slower, it didn’t have the same power as what Renault produced in 05 and 06, and on a vain note, it was freakin’ ugly to look at, unless 200mph creme eggs are your type of thing. Why on earth would a champion want to drive a car that seemed so clumsy? The reason for me is because Alonso has a connection with the Renault setup. Flavio Briatore may make some misjudged and ridiculous comments within the world of Formula 1 but he has brought in some spectacular drivers into the sport and given them a stepping stone to make their name undoubtedly. He himself has said how much he appreciates working alongside Briatore and the two have the right relationship to make the team work so well and to add that loyalty aspect to Alonso’s job at Renault; just look at how disastrous the year of Mclaren was for Alonso after a complete breakdown between himself and the team’s management style with Ron Dennis specifically. he is not the most loyal driver on the grid for me though because of this, the job of a driver is obviously to go for the wins in a race but you’re contracted to a team in the same way a normal person is contracted to their company to work – you are there to work for them. Some of the decisions Alonso made, specifically that pit stop at Hungary 2007, jeopardised his reputation. He is an incredible driver, and he is a worthy name within the sport, but he obviously has a line where loyalty stops and personal choices come in. The Renault he has now in 2009 is still generally below average as it was in 2009, but Alonso proved his own dedication and enjoyment in Fuji and Singapore last season winning the two races in a car that really had no right to be there. We’ve had the huge, huge rumour for years about his move to Ferrari being in the works but who knows? If Renault continue to stagnate in terms of their development and lack of pace, it’s definitely possible. He has already left a team he seems dedicated to once, remember…

On the other hand, Kimi Raikkonen just as confusing to study for completely different reasons. He’s at the biggest name team in the history of the sport, the blood red colours of Scuderia Ferrari and the Prancing Horse following his every move in his Formula 1 life, and he has pretty much always had a sensational car behind him (apart from the start of the 2009 season of course) – so why is it he seems so absolutely unmotivated on the track? He’s an excellent driver as are the previous world champions of the past few years and there’s no disputing that, but if you compare how he was in 2007 to how he has performed after it,  to me he just seems like a transformed man. There’s no consistency to his driving; he can have flashes of utter brilliance, then the next weekend drive unnoticed in the background. We of course had that infamous scene in Malaysia 2009 where nearly all the drivers pretty much worked on their cars in a drenched, ‘undwivable’ grid whilst Raikonnen was seen strolling through the pitlane in flip flops eating an ice cream seemingly in another world completely. His attitude in interviews has never been his strongest point and he has admitted that he hates that aspect of the sport, but he does say he loves the obvious racing aspect of Formula 1. It just amazes me. It’s a little strange because he didn’t have a bad 2008 at all really, he was a contender the championship up until the Japanese Grand Prix. It just bothers me that the second highest paid sportsman in the world seems to have such a lack of motivation and spark in his driving where his teammate, who was ridiculed far more than Kimi at times, showed his brilliance last season and was an incredible challenger for the championship. Where does this all fall into loyalty though? Well for me the lack of motivation is a huge, huge aspect of Raikkonen’s loyalty to not only Ferrari but also to the sport in general.  He obviously has a bank account set for life – as I say he is the second highest paid sportsman in the world behind Tiger Woods, an incredible feat. If the Ferrari rumours about Alonso do indeed materialise, will Raikkonen simply leave the sport that seems so plagued and wallowing in a sea of politics and uncertainty? Honestly, it would not surprised me if he did move away from Formula 1 should that happen. You could just place it down to his personality, the way he acts is just how he is, but if that were the case it would still not prevent him from an inconsistent set of performances and furthermore, it would surely have seen him try to get more out of a car that was still amazingly powerful in 2008. His previous history in the sport has seen him at a few teams so he is certainly not loyal to a particular team, although the wage he is on at Ferrari may definitely see him stay if he had the option. It’s just another case of ‘who knows?’ with Kimi, something I’ve wondered for a long, long time.

I’m getting on a bit now with this entry and I apologise if it’s a lot of reading but there is a lot to say I feel. I’m going to finish though with the big talking point within the sport at the moment – the FIA and FOTA ‘war’. There’s no intention to delve into the tiresome world of the politics we’ve all been subjected to of recent months, and years even. We’ve heard enough of that. All I plan to say is that loyalty is obviously being thrown about in FOTA at the moment – Force India and Williams placed their own entries alongside the conditional general entry that FOTA applied for 2010 with all the teams. Can you be loyal at the same time as confirming your teams future? I believe so but it’s obvious that the teams in FOTA do not agree with the suspension of these two teams from the organisation because of their choice to enter. It’s a shame because FOTA have the potential to present ideas to an authority that seem adamant on taking the sport into a direction no fan seems to have any support for, but with these suspensions question if any problems are happening within FOTA themselves. Will we have a breakaway series in 2010? I don’t think we will. Hopefully, within the next few years we will get Formula 1 with cheaper tickets, with the rules the team wants and what they are suggesting with their breakaway threat. But you must remember – this is the Formula One Team Association. They make their threats for a breakaway and confront the FIA where necessary but every single team wants Formula One to have a future. I feel that even with the doubts of futures for teams like Toyota and Renault, they still want the sport to survive through everything that is going on. If we do indeed get a breakaway, I will be watching but at the same time, I will know at the back of my my mind that it is not what it should be, and I wonder whether this is the case with several teams within FOTA. As loyal as they are to the organisation and their goal to bring power to the teams, you have got to wonder how loyal they are when their future within the sport is in disrepute. Max and even Bernie Ecclestone as the commercial rights holder have shown how they treat loyalty – they simply don’t have any. They have thrown tracks with a huge history in formula one out of the window like a piece of litter because of financial reasons and provided us fans with the loss of some excellent circuits for their own benefit. After further thoughts of the whole subject, and especially after these bog entries and researching deeper into the various aspects of Formula 1, I can’t help to feel that loyalty in formula 1 is something hard to achieve when the people who run it seem to have no knowledge of the word.

So… that’s it. The Loyal family has been discussed, criticised, saluted and thought about. Thanks for reading these entries, a lot of thought has gone into them and again I apologise if there’s simply too much writing. There’s a lot more I could have gone into but I feel that enough has been said for now, and who knows, maybe a part 3 in the future ahead depending on whatever happens in the sport I love so much. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this!