F1Tyrant wrote:
Article here based on quotes from the BBC's season review.
I really not sure what Button is trying to imply with these comments. Is he trying to reinforce the stereotype that Hamilton doesn't make rational decisions?
I'm afraid you have fallen for an editorial bait!
Often junior hacks are pressured by their superiors to submit a lively or salacious article for publication. To remain employed and in the absence of any substantive or newsworthy events to entice readers, the hack will often fabricate a juicy story by drawing fallacious conclusions from innocuous quotes. The hack's editorial or bait states:
Quote:
Lewis Hamilton's decision to join Mercedes was "emotional" and not based on knowledge of the team's potential, according to Jenson Button
Firstly, leaving for the moment what Button actually said, the bait (or editorial comment) is false because it is a known fact,
even before Mercedes became successful that Hamilton attributed Lauda and Brawn's promising appraisal of Mercedes' future prospects as a factor influencing his departure from McLaren. So in direct contradiction to the hack's editorial, Hamilton's decision
was based on knowledge of the team's potential (indeed as imparted to Hamilton by Lauda and Brawn). The risk was Hamilton's to take.
So now that we have established that the premise of the article is false, did Button overtly or implicitly make the suggested claim as reported by the hack?
Button says:
Quote:
"Lewis is one of the quickest guys ever in an F1 car but he did not know [they would be so quick] when he signed.
"We're all emotional, he took it emotionally, but it has paid off."
"I don't think anyone thought he was doing the right thing and at that moment in time it wasn't the right thing to do
"But he has walked into a team that has improved dramatically. They have done an amazing job but you couldn't have envisaged that at that moment in time.
"I think he was upset with the situation he had in McLaren. It was off the back of a DNF when leading in Singapore."
A perusal of all the quotes attributed to Button's clearly confirms that Button is incapable of making an intelligent appraisal of McLaren and even at a mature 34 years of age can sometimes come across as a moronic teenager - "We're all emotional, he took it emotionally, but it has paid off". However, nowhere does Button say that " Lewis Hamilton's decision to join Mercedes was ......
not based on knowledge of the team's potential". Instead, Button explicitly says that an "emotional" Hamilton took a gamble - which is true and a complete NONE STORY!
Just to be clear, how could Button really have made such a claim as suggested by the editorial, since Button was not present in Hamilton's kitchen when Lauda and Brawn came calling!