Send us your thoughts on Jenson Button's 2000 season - BBV10s Debrief
Added 2025-01-05 12:15:01 +0000 UTCIt's almost time for the first Bring Back V10s Debrief! We know you all heard episode one of the new season a while ago via early access, but if you can cast your minds back, send in your thoughts, comments and questions about Jenson Button's 2000 season - and anything specific about our BBV10s episode - and Glenn will go through them early next week!
Comments
I remember not knowing anything about him and having to re-read Autosport in 1999 to figure out who JB was. I remember seeing him at the Australian GP and probably being too harsh on judging him, especially after his crash in practice, reinforced by his poor qualification. Then on race day he did ok, and I remained a bit confused about him (which remained through his whole career) because he had those brilliant moments alongside average ones.
Alexander Law
2025-01-12 08:41:27 +0000 UTCActually might as well throw Jason Watt in there - the Autosport 50 Best Drivers Who Never Raced in F1 article mentions he was due to test the Williams at the time of his motorcycle accident. I think he'd have been a really interesting pick - always very quick, even if he didn't always keep it on the track
Bwlch y Groes
2025-01-09 19:17:10 +0000 UTCWith the fullness of team, would Williams have been better off keeping Button than going for Montoya for 3 explosive years.
Adam Barton
2025-01-08 18:50:37 +0000 UTCHow complicated was the setup of the contract for Williams to control Button's rights for multiple years while driving for other teams without placing him at a customer team? Prior to BAR forming, what was Williams intended driver lineup for 2000? Was it Villeneuve and Montoya, Schumacher or Zanardi?
Adam Barton
2025-01-07 09:20:44 +0000 UTCDoes 2003 Button challenge for the title if he kept the Williams seat over Montoya?
Lancelott
2025-01-06 14:19:35 +0000 UTCSent this in the comments of the original post: Could you please talk us through the rabbit hole of how 2001 through 2003 could've gone had Williams kept JB after 2000? Especially once Williams was a regular frontrunner again in 2003
Jan Alexander
2025-01-05 23:31:29 +0000 UTCIf Jenson hadn’t of gotten the Williams drive.. do you think he still would’ve made it into F1? And if so, with which team?
Liam Scully
2025-01-05 20:09:25 +0000 UTCI don't know why, but the one thing I remember from his season is that he had tonbe driven around Albert Park for his reconnaissance laps as he wasn't old enough to rent an Australian car. Dunno why that stuck with me?!
Arron Riley
2025-01-05 19:33:31 +0000 UTCIf anyone's interested, The Bish dug out the article I was talking about - https://x.com/TheBishF1/status/1874845813266137537
Simon Emms
2025-01-05 18:31:13 +0000 UTCI mentioned it on the community, but my main memory of his first season is an article written by Matt Bishop for F1 Racing where he followed Jenson being interviewed on TFI Friday. I remember thinking that this new fella was a bit different to most drivers - he was charismatic, witty and exciting whereas most drivers were a bit serious. He was also the first driver born in my birth decade so there was something a bit special about him. His first season also showed that he really had something about him too - a few moments of doubt in 01 aside, those feelings never really left me. That article and his whole first season in general gave me a new hero after Damon's retirement.
Simon Emms
2025-01-05 18:30:41 +0000 UTCThere's a few of us in the Twitter community who've said that BBV10s needs to do better - they "only" release 2-3 hours of content a week and a week has 168 hours 😂 Genuinely, I do feel for Glenn having to write a 200,000+ words a year in research - that's more than a Tale of Two Cities.
Simon Emms
2025-01-05 18:21:06 +0000 UTCI think Jenson would have won more races than Montoya - JPM had a good first couple of races, but I remember being disappointed that he didn't kick on after the Brazil heartbreak. I suspect that Jenson wouldn't have gone through JPM's learning curve. I wonder if going through the Benetton pain made Jenson a better driver. What would he have needed to do to keep his 2000 seat? Wins and the championship, surely. He had a very good first season, but it felt like JPM was a dead-cert for 01 and Ralf had a contract for 01.
Simon Emms
2025-01-05 18:16:44 +0000 UTC(Hope I'm not stepping on toes by replying! It's something I've always been fascinated by)
Bwlch y Groes
2025-01-05 17:43:22 +0000 UTCHistorically this is what had always happened - Prost, Senna, Mansell and Hakkinen all went to F1 directly from F3 too, and Schumacher via a diversion into sportscars. I think teams generally thought that if you were a top talent, it would be obvious by F3 and you might as well go straight up. Hill and Alonso were the only V10 era champions to race in F3000 and even then it had little bearing on their success in F1. F3000 was generally the place you went if you were good but not great. It wasn't until Rosberg and particularly Hamilton had success in the GP2 era that perceptions of the second tier changed, but even then, Vettel skipped GP2 and Max came straight from F3
Bwlch y Groes
2025-01-05 17:30:55 +0000 UTCWas signing Jenson a "Heart" over "Head" decision by Frank and Patrick (no pun intended)? Given that Williams seemed certain to put Montoya in the car for 2001 or 2002, they really only needed a stop-gap - in which case, putting Junqueira in the second seat might have been more logical (even if the risk they took on Button proved worthwhile)
Stuart Coulter
2025-01-05 17:25:56 +0000 UTCExactly, by far my favourite podcast to listen to
Mark Martin
2025-01-05 16:09:51 +0000 UTCChris, There is absolutely nothing wrong with shouting at TV adverts! My therapist has given me calming techniques to cope with it……😎 I signed up to support The-Race just before it moved to Patreon. So, when my membership was transposed to Patreon I automatically became a contributor to BbV10 too, not my choice but we are where we are. When my renewal comes up, I will choose the just MotoGP and F1 services on Patreon for The-Race, I will then promise to leave you all alone listening away to BBV10. I went to several British GPs and Italian GPs at Monza during the V10 era and had a great time, but to be honest, all the different manufacturers engines sounded the same and because the gearbox ratios were also the same - as a spectator, you heard one V10 and you had then heard them all, but that’s in the past now. I also miss the DFV engine and gearboxes with double declutch gear shift changes up and down the box which I first heard when I was 10 years old at Brands. But that is in the past too. I moved on and if I need an engine sound fix, I will search YouTube for some footage to satisfy my thirst. Listen, I was invited to give my opinion on BBV10 and I have done. I merely wanted to give Simon Patterson and Val H some more support to continue their excellent MotoGP reporting and wanted to suggest that The-Race extends its great coverage to include World SuperBikes (WSB) too .
Stephen Wood
2025-01-05 14:36:16 +0000 UTCA curious observation that three top drivers of the next decade (Button, Raikkonen and Massa) entered F1 whilst bypassing International F3000. Was it felt that the championship wasn’t a worthwhile marker for talent, or were these guys just exceptions (talentwise or well-connected)?
Alex Raghunath
2025-01-05 13:50:49 +0000 UTCThis comment is like that Ricky Gervais joke about men shouting at signs for guitar lessons saying ‘but I don’t want guitar lessons!!’
Chris Parrott
2025-01-05 13:05:55 +0000 UTCA small mention of Marc Hynes who beat Button to the F3 championship in 99 and never got a good go at F3000 let alone F1
Robin M
2025-01-05 13:04:46 +0000 UTCDo you think Jenson would have won more or less races than Montoya in 2001. What would he have had to have done in 2000 to keep his seat?
Chris Parrott
2025-01-05 13:01:20 +0000 UTCWow, a tad harsh. Not for you ok, but alot of us love it
Robin M
2025-01-05 13:00:19 +0000 UTCI never listen to BBV10 at all, tried it a couple of times and thought, naah, not for me. It’s all over and it is now racing in the past, finished, move on! Plough more money into a WSB podcast instead please. Sorry, but it had to be said by those of us who have tried it and now choose not to listen to it.
Stephen Wood
2025-01-05 12:54:33 +0000 UTCWe know that Williams evaluated several other drivers for the seat, and none of them ever ended up racing in F1: Jorg Muller, Bruno Junqueira, Darren Manning, and even Tom Kristensen. The ITV season preview book by Bruce Jones even went as far as pencilling in Muller for the seat. My question: if Button hadn't got the seat, of these drivers who would've been the best alternative?
Bwlch y Groes
2025-01-05 12:41:14 +0000 UTCIs there any chance of episodes being even longer? Enjoy BBV10S so much I don't want an episode to end! 😂
Ed R Gaming
2025-01-05 12:23:23 +0000 UTCMany of his drives that year especially Suzuka (episode hint) were very good. I think that he suffered a lot from lack of proper guidance in his Renault seasons. His stints in BAR in the initial years especially in 2004 were very good. I have to admit that it took him a while to get going but once he did, it came good at the right time in 2009.
Xerxes Balsara
2025-01-05 12:22:29 +0000 UTC
