Introduction
Jenson Button, born on 19.01.1980, Frome, England, is a Formula 1 driver and the prospective champion for this year. Lately, I have been intrigued by the thought that there could be an astrological clue for the results of a F1 race, in which the elite of world's drivers compete. As for any such driver only a date and a place of birth can be found in the web, it is laughable to attempt a prediction where the victory is a matter of hundredths of seconds and other external agents and designs often interfere. Yet I thought that the astrological indication, if there is any, of a competent driver could be traced by the study of this specific group of people.
Method of work :
The program F1History ( www.history.formula.hu ) is complete with birth dates and nationalities of all the competitors in the sport since its kickoff in 1950. Its list of 780 drivers was turned into a database of the astrological program Zet8 and the list was sieved with the configurations searching routine the program. The following concessions were applied :
1. As place of birth was taken the capital of State whose nationality the driver had. This concession aimed at defining only the time zone and the noon was taken as time of birth. This convention does not affect the results, as the aspects and positions of the planets examined were almost the same all over the world on the date of birth even, say, for a French born on Reunion island. For the USA, New York and East Coast Time was applied, for Australia, Melbourne. The astrologically savvy correspondent can easily understand that such conventions do not affect the results in the following tables. No Lilith, Nodes, Vertex and other similar elements. No ascendant and houses. No Moon; as far as I know, no astrologer has ever correlated the nervous and sympathetic system with the Moon, which is related only with the parasympathetic. Nervous system and reflexes have classically been attributed to Mercury, so the examination of this planet was of primary importance as well as that of Mars (athletics, rush, competitiveness) and, indispensably, that of the Sun.
Secondly, the aspects of the above with Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus were examined.
2. Aspects and orbs were taken as follows :
| Sun | Mer | Ve | Mar | Jup | Sat | Uran | |
| 00o | 12 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 6 |
| 30o | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45o | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 60o | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 90o | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 120o | 10 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| 135o | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 180o | 12 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 |
Aspects ( P = positive, N = negative )
| Venus | Mercury | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | |
| P N | P N | P N | P N | P N | P N | |
| Sun | 145 236 | 267 0 | 206 181 | 203 186 | 142 243 | 146 253 |
| Mercury | 187 36 | 142 65 | 166 110 | 112 149 | 93 141 | |
| Mars | 151 98 | 142 65 | 150 106 | 92 147 | 84 157 |
As the conjunction of with Saturn and Uranus was considered negative, no statistically significant results on the part of outer planets, but, the conjunction Mars-Mercury being generally considered as positive in astrology, here is the clue : only 65 out of 780 drivers ( less than 1/10 ) have a hard aspect ( semi-square, square, sesqui-quadrate, opposition ) between Mars and Mercury. Even if the conjunction is taken as negative, the number amounts to 110, that is only one out of seven drivers ( here is their list ). And from those 110 drivers having a Mercury negatively affected by Mars, 88 have their Mercury aided with positive aspects (conjunction, semi-sextile, sextile, trine ) from Jupiter or Venus. If positive aspects ( semi-sextile, sextile, trine ) with Saturn enter into play the cases amount to 104, that is to say almost all of the above have their Mercury assisted in some way.
Consequently, the lack of negative aspects between Mercury and Mars is a quality of these persons statistically verified.
Epilogue
It would be interesting to study the above data in a complete environment with the place and exact time of birth afforded. Maybe some day the authorities of any kind will be more cooperative with astrology. In that ideal future I am sure it will be proved that the " curious case of Jenson Button " was not so curious, after all.
