Not sure what to make of this, but Button has criticised Sato's style

[Dixie Flatline]

I've come across an article on f1racing.net where Button apparently told ITV that Sato's driving style is "ragged" and inconsistent, and in relation to Sato's coming-together with Barrichello, Sato apparently made up his mind on the move half a minute beforehand he was going to do it. The article is here.

I would have thought ITV's Formula One website would have carried an article about it, but I can't find anything, so I don't know whether this is genuine or just taken out of context.

[Kicking-back]

Totally out of context.

He was not bashing Takuma as such.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63878

[Dixie Flatline]

Ta for that.

I suspected it was taken out of context.

[BSchneiderFan]

Not so sure; he made similiar remarks in an interview with Martin Brundle on ITV last Sunday, and I confess I found them strange. When a driver is asked about his team-mate, you expect the usual "He's a very quick driver" platitudes, but Button on Sato seemed, well, churlish. All not well at BAR?

[Teretonga]

He made a comment about a particular manouvre, suggesting that perhaps sato hadn't really thought about it, perhaps a bit 'spur of the moment-gamble' then acknowledges that although he appears 'ragged' he is sometimes 'very quick'. How much is an off-hand comment someone has seized upon and how much is internal team rivalry-psychology is anyones guess, but don't read too much into it.

[BSchneiderFan]

Hmmm. Nonetheless, during the interview I saw, he repeatedly made very carefully qualified comments about Sato, suggesting things like "he may get more consistent". I wish I could remember his remarks verbatim, but I was hungover like billy-o.

[JohnSSC]

On raw speed Sato is faster and he is certainly braver. Doesn't change managers as often as Jense either. Just may be that JB is feeling a bit threatened.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

2005 will be Sato's year.

[senna12]

If Jenson is feeling threatened, there is good reason for it.

DR is gone.

He tried to shaft them (Honda) at the end of last season.

Sato is Japanese, and very quick.

I can see team focus for BAR changing this season.

[Armco Bender]

He said,She said,who really gives a big rats bottom.

[Paarma]

Would BAR really favor Sato over Button? I doubt it. I know Honda is a big player there, but still... 2004 Button was good. Sato is a very promising driver, but would they really favor him over Button? I love Sato's courage, but I can't see how he would become n.1 all of the sudden just because Honda is Japanese. Too many mistakes, and a LOT of engine failures . It kind of makes me wonder if the reliability wasn't the only shortcoming in his car .

[Glen]

Sato is quicker? Huh? I'm pretty sure that Formula One is a race over sixty or seventy laps and the one that gets to the end first (in the shortest time, most Quickly!) is the winner - I'd like to know how Sato is quicker! Sato hasn't even won the qualifying battle, which is surely as good a test or "raw speed" as can be imagined.

[Gabrio]

Mmmh... I would not say that X is quicker than Y. I'd rather think that Sato has earned his place through F3 wins and performances in F1. He's young and possibly there might be a lot more coming from him.

[JohnSSC]

No Sato is not demonstrably quicker based on qualifying. His racecraft is TBA due to the hand-grenade that masqueraded as his engine so often this past season. However, he has done some astonishingly quick times on difficult tracks and has shown a willingness to take the fight to his competitor. A warrior in the true Bushido spirit.

Should be interesting this season!

[enemy-ace]

I remember JV refering to Sato as a ragged driver when Sato was still a BAR tester. But that was just JV being mean to the rookies.
Sure Sato had a lot of exploding engines but he also has had a tendency to throw it off the track. Button is just being truthful. Isn't that what we are always asking for from our F1 drivers?
Sato has the potential, it just still needs to be realized.

[Glen]

A lot of exploding engines is very unlikely to be bad luck - the odds of it happenning mainly to just one driver are just too long. There were plenty of hints as to the truth at the time - usually phrased along the lines of "something to do with his driving style"... which basically means (I think) rather too inclined to use the extra rev limit (AKA boost button) or possibly rather disinclined to obey instructions to use less revs when conditions call for it. I have read that Ferrari were alone in being abe to use maximum revs through the whole race, with all other teams needing to save the engine for at least some of the race by using a more gentle engine map with reduced max revs. Naturally, no team member would ever express it so explicitly because it makes the engine manufacturer look bad.

[ASCII Man]

Yes, but i read somewhere, here most probably, that Ferrari didn't have to use the full power of their engine for the majority of last season.
Maybe that's why they could run full revs, i don't know..

[shiny side up!]

I'm in agreement with those who say Sato is not demonstrably quicker than Button. As for Sato being 'braver', not so sure about that, either... attempting to squeeze into any available opening at any time makes one neither brave nor intelligent.

I like Sato's desire, attitude, enthusiasm, and I hope that his technique and racecraft in 2005 will prove to be developed enough to enhance those positives instead of resulting in as many mistakes and misfortunes as 2004.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

Yes, but i read somewhere, here most probably, that Ferrari didn't have to use the full power of their engine for the majority of last season.
Maybe that's why they could run full revs, i don't know..

Full revs would be full power, wouldn't it? It is true of course that they didn't need to use the full engine range in a lot of races, because they were so far ahead - what I was meaning though was that they were alone in having the full rev range available for the entire race duration, should it be needed. All other teams had a need to be cautious at least some of the time, and Sato was perhaps not as cautious as he should have been.

When Button got in the lead in the Monza race it was remarkable how the Ferraris just walked past him on the long straight later on in the race - my guess is that at that point in the race the Honda needed nursing and Ferrari had no such problem (although their top speeds were also different due to wing levels, but the diffreence was not apparent until later in the race).

[strider]

Originally Posted by Glen

When Button got in the lead in the Monza race it was remarkable how the Ferraris just walked past him on the long straight later on in the race - my guess is that at that point in the race the Honda needed nursing and Ferrari had no such problem (although their top speeds were also different due to wing levels, but the diffreence was not apparent until later in the race).

As I understand it, that was the one occasion last year when the Ferrari drivers were allowed to use the full potential of the engine, which is a sobering thought.

As for the main topic, you have to say that although Button drove brilliantly throughout last season, he did not cover himself with glory outside the cockpit, with some serious errors of judgement. Any doubtful comments about Sato probably indicate that he knows Takuma is only going to get better, but he would be better advised to keep his thoughts to himself.

[Glen]

Some serious errors? Like what? I'll concede that the Williams move was not good - but he was poorly advised, AND it turned out that there was a lot more to the situation that initially met the eye - like the small matter of DR trying to cheat him out of a couple of million dollars... to JB's credit he was big enough to not defend himself by talking about that issue.

I can't really see to much wrong with the comment that his style is ragged but very fast - if anyone were to describe Sato's style that would be a pretty accurate summing-up. I do think that perhaps Jenson might have kept quiet about hiis team-mate's lunging tactics, but even that is hardly an insult and probably quite accurate.

[BootsOntheSide]

Monza is the only circuit left where engine power is the biggest factor on the car's performance - usually the chassis, suspension, or tyres are more significant, so using 100% engine power would often be an unneccessary risk from a team which seemed to have an advantage in all other areas.

Sato's reputation as a crasher is extremely unfair - he didn't actually crash out of a single race last season, and his only significant errors were Malaysian qualifying and the move on Rubens at the Nurburgring, and that's less than most other drivers (Jenson being a rare exception, in fact). In 2002 he was a little over-eager, and he still had that trait occasionally last year, but he showed much more maturity as the season went on.

I suspect this has been blown out of proportion by ITV - they've been doing this a lot recently. Compared to Jenson, most drivers can be seen as ragged or error-prone, because he's so smooth and rational in outlook - as Glen says, we only really got one side of the Williams move situation, purely because JB didn't want to wade into the public arguments on the subject.

[santori]

I don't know if Sato is to blame for his engine failures. In '97 Mika Hakkinen had many. Did he change his driving style?
Back in the late-sixties, Jochen Rindt was accused of breaking his engines but Jackie Stewart - who should know - wrote in his autobiography that that was almost impossible. Sometimes drivers just have bad luck.

[Kirk]

I do think Button may be somewhat threatened by Sato. Sato is pretty quick, he's ruthless and has quickly gained a reputation as such. Conceivably this could give him a few more inches of racing room; a luxury, if you will, and something I doubt JB will ever have.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

I suspect this has been blown out of proportion by ITV - they've been doing this a lot recently.

All ITV did was show an interview.

It was another website who quoted that and blew it out of proportion.