In the previous "comparing the teammates"-post I promised to compare the McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen.
Previously I have written about the teammates of Ferrari, Lotus, Red Bull, Force India, Mercedes, Sauber, Williams and Marussia.
If you haven't read them then just click on the links below:
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/11/comparing-2014-teammates-scuderia.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-red-bull-racing.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-lotus.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-force-india.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-mercedes.html?spref=fb
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-sauber.html?spref=fb
http://www.f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-williams.html
http://www.f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-marussia.html
This time I have a very experienced driver, who is also the 2009 world champion, and then we have a rookie.
There isn't much to say about Kevin Magnussen. All I know about him is that his father was also in F1 (Jan Magnussen) and that he is the 2013 champion of the "World Series by Renault".
Magnussen drove very well in the tests in Jerez but what can you say based on a test session? Not much.
I will continue by listing Jenson Button's teammates and how he competed against them. First the year, then the teammate and after that info etc. Let's begin..
2000 - Ralf Schumacher. His first teammate was hard to beat because Ralf was at his best at the time. He was also the younger brother of the seven time world champion Michael Schumacher. Ralf got twice the amount of points than Jenson (24-12).
2001 - Giancarlo Fisichella. 8-2! That was the score between Fisi and Jenson at Benetton. It looked like Jenson's career was going backwards.
2002 - Jarno Trulli. This year Benetton became Renault and Button became a better driver! He won his more experienced teammate by 5 points. Button was 7th in the championship which was his best yet. Trulli was 8th that year.
2003 - Jaques Villeneuve and Takuma Sato. At BAR Honda Jenson had to fight against a former world champion. So how did it go? He got more points than his two teammates combined. Sato drove for only one race but still got a 6th place which was also Villeneuve's best result that year.
2004 - Takuma Sato. Button was clearly the better driver and got the number one driver treatment from his team. This was Button's best season yet when he was 3rd in the championship. The only ones in front of him were the unstoppable Ferrari's driven by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.
2005 - Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson. This year the BAR Honda was illegal and was excluded from 2 races and disqualified from 1. Sato was also disqualified from one more race but Button wasn't. If we look at the points that they managed to get then Button won them both again. He got 37 points when his teammates got only 1 single point combined (Davidson didn't get a single point).
2006 - Rubens Barrichello. This year the team became Honda and Barrichello joined them from Ferrari. Button took his first ever victory in Hungary and was 6th in the championship. Barrichello was right behind in 7th place but had over 20points less than Button.
2007 - Rubens Barrichello. This year the car was just awful! Button was 15th in the standings and Barrichello didn't score one single point and was 20th.
2008 - Rubens Barrichello. This time Barrichello got 11 points and Button only 3. Well.. at least he got 3 points instead of no points. Barrichello was 14th in the standings and Button was 18th.
2009 - Rubens Barrichello. This year Button won the world championship with Brawn GP which had been Honda and BAR Honda earlier. The score was 95-77 between him and his teammate.
2010 - Lewis Hamilton. The 2009 world champion joined McLaren as the 2008 world champion's teammate. People were sure that Jenson had no chance against Lewis but made everybody shut up by winning a race before him. In the end the score was 240-214 between the two of them which ment that Lewis was better (as the press had predicted).
2011 - Lewis Hamilton. This time Jenson was hungry to beat his teammate and did just that with a score of 270-227. Button was runner up in the championship and Hamilton was 5th.
2012 - Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton's last year with McLaren and also the deciding year; who was better Hamilton or Button? Hamilton won 4 races and Button 3. If we look at the points it was 190-188 between them. Very close but Hamilton won with two points.
2013 - Sergio Perez. This teammate couldn't really fight against Button. He had his moments but usually he was just overdoing everything. He crashed into people and he missed braking points. At the end of the season the score was 73-49 with Button on the 9th place and Perez on the 11th. McLaren didn't wanna continue his contract and signed Magnussen for 2014.
I guess Magnussen is like Button's apprentice this year. If he get's a shot in 2015 he might be much better. If he beats Button on his first season, it will be the end of Jenson Button's career and reputation. Magnussen on the other hand will get a lot of respect!
Tomorrow I am going to compare the Caterham drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson.
