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Jenson Button: Racing back to the top of podium
JP/TONY HOTLAND Jenson Button’s almost unbelievable rise from scrapheap to podium through his recent back-to-back Grand Prix wins proved sweet revenge for those who had written him off
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JP/TONY HOTLAND
Jenson Button’s almost unbelievable rise from scrapheap to podium through his recent back-to-back Grand Prix wins proved sweet revenge for those who had written him off.
Hyped far too soon after making his Formula One debut for Williams as a callow 20-year-old in 2000, Button had long since fallen out of favor with the media pack.
He was accused of arrogance and immaturity in his early (partying) years, before suffering a string of dud cars. He then had to watch as fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton took the sport by storm in 2007 to become the youngest ever F1 World Champion the following season at just 23.
Now, two years later, even when he has plenty of reason to gloat, Button says he is not going to get out of the car with an “I told you so” face – although even those who hate him might not object given his striking debut in Australia and Malaysia with Brawn GP, where he finished on top of the grid in the qualifiers and the races.
And sure some say he’s been winning only because he’s got a great car. They have been blowing up the “diffuser” drama, with Brawn’s diffuser being contested by giants such as Ferrari, Renault and BMW-Sauber. Indeed, Brawn, Toyota and Williams have been reigning since Australia each has a larger, and thus more effective, diffuser.
But until the FIA decides on Tuesday, Button deserves his second 15-minutes at the top.
Born Jenson Alexander Lyons Button on Jan. 19, 1980, in Frome, Somerset, he began karting at a tender age backed by his father – former rallycross racer John Button – and charted a rapid rise through the ranks by winning all the races at the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship along with the title.
“I loved my years in karting because it’s the best form of racing in the world. It’s real bumper-to-bumper stuff and you learn so much about driving and about the sport. I wanted to learn to be smooth and I’ve carried that through to F1,” he says.
He went on to become the youngest ever winner of the European Super A Championship as well as winning the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup in 1997. The success continued, with him eventually winning the 1998 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award. He was rewarded with his first taste of F1 machinery with McLaren and he also tested for the Prost Grand Prix team.
“It was amazing to experience that much power, but the main thing I remember is the blue light on the dashboard, which meant the radio was on. The team could hear me shouting into my helmet!” says Button, who, at 1.82 meters, stands uncommonly tall for a motor racer.
A rare opportunity later presented itself at Williams following the sudden departure of Alessandro Zanardi. Button was picked by team boss Frank Williams after a “shoot-out” test against Formula 3000 racer Bruno Junquiera. Despite his quick popularity after a few outstanding performances, he was unable to hang on to his Williams seat, which was destined for Juan Pablo Montoya.
“It was a fantastic year and from a driving perspective, I learned a lot. Looking back, I should have worked a bit harder on the technical side of things,” he says.
He moved in 2001 to Benetton, which was then in transition to Renault, meaning he struggled against long-time driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Team boss Flavio Briatore promoted Fernando Alonso, who was the team’s test driver, to Button’s seat in 2003. Alonso went on to win the 2005 and 2006 World Championships with Renault.
His progress in following years was overshadowed by contract disputes with BAR (British American Racing) and Williams.
In 2004, Button had been driving with BAR successfully alongside former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, but soured team relations by defecting back to Williams. Curiously, the same dispute took place in reverse in 2005 as he tried to extricate himself from a Williams contract after Honda bought out BAR.
Soon the controversies were capped with a reward when he won his first Grand Prix in Hungary a year later, scoring more points than any other driver in the final six rounds, after a total of 113 races.
“It was certainly very special for lots of reasons. Everyone did a good job in that race in very difficult conditions: I drove well, our strategy was spot on and the mechanics did a great job at each of my pit stops. To win a grand prix is what I’d been working towards all of my career and it felt an amazing feeling to finally achieve that,” he says.
But the next year turned out to be a disaster. Rib fractures from a karting incident knocked him out of winter testing before the 2007 season. He finished outside the top 10 on the grid at a number of GP races, and Honda cars were written off as poor and extremely uncompetitive.
It got even worse in 2008 with a dreadfully uncompetitive Honda. Perhaps gritting his teeth, Button stayed at Honda, continuing to partner with Rubens Barrichello. He retired from many of the season’s races, finished outside the top 10 and ended the season with only one point.
His career seemed almost at an end when Honda announced in December it was pulling out of the sport because of the financial crisis. Button was left wondering if he’d ever climb back into an F1 car. But Ross Brawn, the team principal of Honda Racing, announced last month he was taking over Honda. He reformed it as Brawn GP to enter this year’s season. And, as they say, the rest is history.
“It has been a great thing so far and I hope it will continue into the European championship,” notes Button, who says he has not really thought about what he would do if he weren’t a racing driver.
“But I know I couldn’t sit behind a desk. It would have to be something which involved fitness and something fast. Something that got the adrenaline pumping, so probably a sport.”
So once again Button is back in the headlines, with photographers shooting him strutting around the paddock area with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata, a Japanese model.
A 15-minute session with him quickly ended with journalists switching into fan mode as they clamored to get his autograph – the autograph of a future World Champion?
