Ecclestone: Button dominance 'very, very bad' for F1

[CNR]

http://www.crash.net/formula+one/News/148101/1/ecclestone_button_dominance_very_very_bad_for_f1.h tml


Amidst the euphoria in Britain surrounding Jenson Button's sensational start to the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship campaign, Bernie Ecclestone has tempered celebrations somewhat with the suggestion that the Brawn GP star's dominance is actually beginning to hurt the sport rather than than boost it.

No driver has prevailed in six of the opening seven outings like Button has done since the legendary Michael Schumacher back in 2004, and the German's level of superiority was so acute that it led to spectators deserting the top flight in their droves. The top flight's influential ringmaster Ecclestone fears that should the existing trend continue, it could ultimately end up producing the same undesirable effect.

On present form, the Frome-born ace is likely to wrap up the title with several races to spare, depriving the end of the season of the tension and uncertainty that has characterised the past few years and kept fans gripped right up until the final lap of the final grand prix.

Ironically, under Ecclestone's controversial Olympic Games-style medals system billed for introduction in 2010, the 29-year-old would need to triumph just twice more this year to be assured of lifting the laurels – and the Formula One Management (FOM) chief executive admitted that he hopes the opposition will be quick to up its game and provide the current runaway pace-setter with a decent fight.

[Knock-on]

I think the reason lots of people were turned off F1 was because the FIA favoured Ferrari and assumed everyone was happy about that.

Ferrari's manufactured dominance went on for years. Can anyone begrudge Button and Brawn after the torrid time and amazing effort they have put in just to get to race this year?

[F1boat]

Actually I'd like to see a convincing champion -for a change. Hopefully Jenson will win the championship as soon as possible :)

[Dave B]

I hope there's no knee-jerk reaction to one team's dominace, such as re-writing the sporting regulations without properly considering the implications.

And to think, it was Bernie who wanted the winner-takes-all medals system for this year - Button would be virtually guaranteed the championship under Mr E's stupid proposals!

[F1boat]

Actually the rules will be different next year - if there is next year.

[Valve Bounce]

Bernie: my heart bleats for you :- mehehehehehe

[ioan]

Can anyone begrudge Button and Brawn after the torrid time and amazing effort they have put in just to get to race this year?

You mean after the FIA favored them with the DDD ruling? :laugh:

So manufactured is wrong if it's Ferrari and it's right if it's Honda?! :rolleyes:

[V12]

Allow me to translate the thread title properly:

Ecclestone: Button dominance 'very, very bad' for his wallet.

F1 is a sport. Sport consists of winners and losers. Occasionally the winners do such a good job that they win repeatedly and/or by a huge margin. Deal with it.

Perhaps Bernie should jack the whole F1 thing in and move into directing films - that sounds like more his cup of tea, "entertainment" and scripted plots and endings.

[ioan]

Allow me to translate the thread title properly:

Ecclestone: Button dominance 'very, very bad' for his wallet.

F1 is a sport. Sport consists of winners and losers. Occasionally the winners do such a good job that they win repeatedly and/or by a huge margin. Deal with it.

Perhaps Bernie should jack the whole F1 thing in and move into directing films - that sounds like more his cup of tea, "entertainment" and scripted plots and endings.

Agree!

[ArrowsFA1]

So manufactured is wrong if it's Ferrari and it's right if it's Honda?! :rolleyes:
Perhaps there is a difference between a team being given the right of veto over technical regulations for almost a decade, and the FIA finding that a particular interpretation of the regulations relating to one aspect of a cars design was legal.

[nigelred5]

Follow the bouncing Brawn...... where ever Ross goes, the team dominates.

Might it be Ross and Bernie that have a "special" relationship and not Ferrari? :s :

[ioan]

Perhaps there is a difference between a team being given the right of veto over technical regulations for almost a decade, and the FIA finding that a particular interpretation of the regulations relating to one aspect of a cars design was legal.

Arrows, if you would bother to check you would see that until a few years ago ALL the teams had a right of veto on technical regulations, and it was exactly the same period when Ferrari demolished the opposition.

I'm all for discussing and arguing, but only when you have the knowledge of the reality.

[V12]

Follow the bouncing Brawn...... where ever Ross goes, the team dominates.

Might it be Ross and Bernie that have a "special" relationship and not Ferrari? :s :

Or maybe Ross is just very good at what he does :up:

For instance football manager Fabio Capello has managed four different clubs in Europe and won the league title with the lot of them. And now he looks like getting a previously woeful and underachieving England national side to actually have the possiblity of maybe perhaps accomplishing something.

Team sports (and yes, "F2" apart, motor racing is a team sport) by their very definition make judging individuals a grey area, but when you find common denominators like Brawn, well it speaks for itself.

(P.S. Not having a go - I'm assuming your comment was tongue in cheek :p )

[555-04Q2]

I dont have a problem with one team/driver winning every race ina season. Teams deserve any success they get for performing better than the others.

What I have a problem with is poor racing, which is what we are getting at the moment.

[555-04Q2]

Follow the bouncing Brawn...... where ever Ross goes, the team dominates.

Might it be Ross and Bernie that have a "special" relationship and not Ferrari? :s :

No. Brawn is just smarter than all the other kids in the playground put together.

[wedge]

Twunt.

Bernie - you made your cake now eat it!

[Sarah]

I put a link to that Daily Express interview up on Monday on another thread.

[AndyL]

"Very, very bad" - ridiculous exaggeration by Bernie. I think V12 was probably about right, he means for his wallet :rolleyes:
Personally I'm delighted to see a likeable, talented driver who's toiled for years in uncompetitive cars get his chance to kick the arses of all the people who've been beating him. If it continues for another 2 or 3 years, then maybe it will start to become a problem for the sport (but F1 seemed to survive the Schumacher era all right). On the other hand maybe Rubens will do it next year and Trulli the year after and it'll all be good :)

[AndyRAC]

Tough, this is supposed to be a sport! And a World Championship!!
This isn't Nascar - which is sports entertainment.

[Mark in Oshawa]

WE put up with Schuy winning for all those years, and he whinges about a good young guy like Button getting one up on all those who dumped on him? I hope Jenson runs the damned table. Anything that annoys Bernie is alright with me.

[Hawkmoon]

Comments such as this show what a hypocritical snake Bernie is. When Schumi won everything up to the Monaco GP in 2004 Bernie said it would be good to see if he could win all the races. 5 years later and it's very bad for F1. Come Bernie, you can do better than that!

And maybe some of those in ol' Blighty who are pitching a tent over Button at the moment should remember their bitterness over 2002 and 2004. It is nothing more than dramatic rule changes that have handed Brawn this advantage. Sure they have designed a good car and deserve credit for it but if the 2009 cars were evolutions of the 2008 cars then I think there's little doubt that the usual suspects would be winning and Brawn would be behind them.

[Koz]

Ah the midget...

Well he does have a point, if you look at Loeb and the WRC. And the manufacturers pulling sure, makes a tiny bit of sense... For that point of view...

But yeah, as said above, hurts his wallet. Maybe he has a "special" deal with Honda\Brawn that he must pay some extra $$ to them for such performace or something...

[V12]

I admit Button's dominance is easier to stomach as a Brit than Schumacher's, just like in 1992 when Mansell hoovered up.

But did I stop watching when Schumacher was dominating? Well no because I'm still here. Yes I wanted him to get beat every fortnight, and more often than not he didn't get beat, but thats because he and his team just plain did a better job than anyone else, so he deserved everything he got.

Just like Button and Brawn now.

I think Bernie and Max seem to be too preoccupied with what the "man in the street" thinks more than the die hard fan - although last time I checked I was very much a man and I live on a street the last time I looked out my window, but never mind. Why? Because that equals more absolute numbers, and more money in their back pocket. But F1 and motor racing in general has always been a minority interest sport compared to the likes of football. I vividly remember as a kid having the p**s taken out of me for not bothering to watch a match with the boys one year to go home and watch the Monaco GP in the early 90s, because I was the only one that would choose to do that.

[V12]

Ah the midget...

Well he does have a point, if you look at Loeb and the WRC. And the manufacturers pulling sure, makes a tiny bit of sense... For that point of view...

But yeah, as said above, hurts his wallet. Maybe he has a "special" deal with Honda\Brawn that he must pay some extra $$ to them for such performace or something...

I think the WRC analogy is swapping cause and effect. Yes Loeb is a very good driver, but he doesn't have any opposition because the WRC imploded - the WRC didn't implode because Loeb was dominating, if that makes sense lol. They need to get back to traditional events like the RAC, Safari and 1000 Lakes, and get away from the standardisation/control tyre cancer that's plaguing open wheel racing right now.

[woody2goody]

No real fans complain at an undefeated boxer, like Joe Calzaghe, a fighter like Lyoto Machida, an undefeated team like Arsenal a few years ago. All these supposedly have superior natural skills and coaching.

Brawn weren't supposed to be anywhere near this good. By the way I don't think it's been a one sided season. Turkey was really the only race which has been 'easy' for Jenson.

People forget that the Red Bulls were around 25 seconds ahead of Button in China. Rosberg led in malaysia quite comfortably before the rain, Toyota locked out the front row in Bahrain, Vettel on pole in Turkey, Rubens led in Spain.

People keep comparing 09 to 2004, but the '04 Ferrari was AT LEAST three quarters of a second PER LAP faster than anything else on a normal track, at least until the new McLaren came out half way through the season.

I watched nearly every race in 2004 as usual. The only time I didn't watch every race since 1996 was in '02 when Ferrari dominated, and the racing down the field wasn't very interesting either.

[leopard]

I see Jenson is a worthy meaningful driver, average driver will not drive in such consistent of winning way. But, to be honest, being such dominant, considering he drives for a new born team is not too good, I don't say it is bad. It looks like everyone can win F1, without having to pass long journey where every progress from race to race, season to season is measured carefully. F1 is as easy to put hand palm upside down.

People look at this phenomenal result of Brawn more for the prominent figure of Ross Brawn.

[Tazio]

I think what Bernie is trying to say is although this is great news for the home team., (and I'm not trying to take anything away from button or Brawn two elements of the sport I have always respected) Unlike Mike, Brawn/JB success is only after radical rule changes, and it makes Bernie, F1 and the FIA look a little less credible to the rest of the Racing world as a whole. Mikes success came at a time of less radical rule changes and was sustained over a period when teams had a chance to reevaluate their cars on testing tracks during the season. And was only dethroned IMO by rules directed at stopping his on-going dominance of the series! With the current system in place If you didn't get it right at the start of the season you are $hit out of luck. All teams knew this going in so that makes it a level playing field. So Bernie's only real complaint is this will somehow affect his fortune, and his legacy, which he is too greedy to be overjoyed about the former. And to senile to realize he FVked up his legacy a long time ago. As far as the dominance of Brawn, and Button, and RB's ability to consistently beat a team he has a bit of an issue with couldn’t happen to three nicer guys. So only very insecure Fan boys or those who live their lives vicariously through the success of a favorite driver, feel like they have to constantly justify Buttons success by comparing him to the likes of Mike. Conversely only insecure fans of Fred, Lewis, Massa, and Kimi, who live their lives vicariously through F1 Feel rage against the machine :) When it's all said and done next season will define what Brawn has accomplished this one. If they go tits up they will still always have this year to be proud of. If they continue to be a top two or three team nobody has any reason to try to minimize this year’s accomplishments.

I look forward to the rest of this season. But not as much as some teams may look forward to next. I foresee acts of guile and vengeance in the offing!

"THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong."

By the almighty

[ShiftingGears]

Well he creates headlines with what he says.
Which means: $$$

[wmcot]

Haven't we heard all this before somewhere? It sounds like something out of 2004. Maybe next years rules will be changed to hurt BrawnGP. Talk about deja vu!