Australia: Three point gamble for San Marino win
By Phil Huff - April 2 2006
Honda Racing F1 elected to retire Jenson Button from the Australian Grand Prix just yards from the finish line, choosing instead to sacrifice a potential three points for a fresh engine without penalty at San Marino.
Jenson Button's car started spewing flames, smoke and engine parts as he exited the final corner of the race and, with just seconds to come to a decision, his race engineer Andrew Shovlin declared that Button should not cross the finish line.
In issuing the order, the team chose to lose the three points Button may have got for finishing sixth, although Jenson doesn't feel he'd have made it to the line anyway.
"Two corners from the end I felt it was a little bit down on power, a little bit tight, and then coming out of the last corner there was a massive, massive fire and lots of smoke," explained Jenson. "I pulled over to the right to get out of everyone's way but it seized just before I got to the finish line. I stopped the car anyway as it wouldn't have made the finish line anyway."
Team boss Nick Fry spoke immediately after the race, saying It was a quick call by the race engineer, and we need to see if it was right later."
Speaking later, Fry added "Clearly what we will do, as we will do with everything, is have an evaluation of the situation. At the moment we feel it was the right decision.
"We lost points here but we can go to Imola with a clean sheet of paper, a new engine and improvements to the car. Hopefully we can turn it into a good race position next time around.
"We didn't hear anything on the radio or data about it, but Jenson said he felt the engine not pick up properly on the last lap through the fast corners at the back. He felt that something was not quite right, but when he saw the smoke he kept his foot in."
"He's less than impressed, but rightly so I think," he continued. "We've got a lot of work to do before we get to Imola."
While many commentators are suggesting that the team made a poor decision in potentially sacrificing these points, it's worth remembering that Honda Racing F1's target for 2006 is race wins, and not points. Historically, both Jenson Button and Honda have been strong at San Marino, home to the next race, and a fresh engine package without penalty will be a great benefit, especially considering that both championship leader Fernando Alonso will be on his second engine cycle.
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