Be Excellent To Each Other

There is a much bigger difference between a drivers level between his first and second year than any point later. Particularly now they get approximately sod all testing prior to the first race.

Going by championship points, I believe that's correct.

2012:
Lewis Hamilton - 190
Jenson Button - 188
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Formula_One_season

2010:
Lewis Hamilton - 240
Jenson Button - 214
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Formula_One_season

I think his performance there relative to Hamilton shows that he's a pretty top notch driver. Two points over a season in 2010. He's certainly not some sort of bum who is going to get "destroyed" by Alonso anyway. Looking forward to seeing what'll happen, though. Because although the Ferrari was a bit shit this year I still didn't see much from Alonso that reminded me why everyone reckons he's the best.

Sky F1 are clearly a bunch of liars.

In terms of total points over the three seasons, it is the case.

However, it's also only looking at the figures rather than the whole story. Like saying Damon Hill was better than Senna as he massively outscored him while they were teammates.

Hamilton had five retirements to Button's two that year.

No reason not to take luck into account when picking your drivers.

Also not crashing into the other cars is a pretty key skill for an F1 driver.

Top trolling.

I'd really like Button to win the championship next year, as he seems like a nice guy and nice guys should get rewarded.

It'll never happen, but it would be nice.

Still got two points more from three fewer finishes. Denotes a better driver to me. Especially considering Grosjean and Rosberg caused two of the incidents...

I wouldn't say that Hamilton isn't a better driver. I just reckon that Button is pretty good and probably deserves his place ahead of Magnussen.

There's not. Some drivers are consistently unlucky, and that shit's not ignored.

If forced to choose between the two would you have given Heidfeld the drive over Kubica in 2008 given Heidfeld massively outscored his (effectively) rookie team mate in 2007?

It depends on your plans for the future, I guess - if you think you're in with a good shot of winning the next season, you keep the guys who are proved to be good. If you think your season is a few years away, you keep the talented rookies, like Red Bull did.

[edit]Although I realise Red Bull are a special case.

I'm sure all the teams also plan several years in advance, looking at who else is likely to be up for grabs in the 2016, 17, 18 seasons and so on.

They'll know what drivers will be out of contract and who's looking promising in lower formulas that they might want to snap up.

Unless you're Schumacher.