FORMULA ONE HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX"YOU LOOK back and you remember the good, the bad and the ugly," Jenson Button says, summing up his career on the eve of his 200th grand prix at the Hungaroring tomorrow. It has, appropriately, had an air of the spaghetti western – drama, action and a hugely satisfying denouement in the world championship title in 2009.
A promising kart racer strongly supported by his father John, Button’s first drive at Williams in 2000 could have been scripted by Sergio Leone himself: a shoot-out test drive with the Brazilian contender Bruno Junqueira. He won, was offered the job by Frank Williams and became Britain’s youngest Formula One driver.
It was a beginning weighted with expectation that would, to some extent, inform the rest of his career. He remembers the opening of his first race in Australia that year: “I was driving up behind Michael (Schumacher). I remember that moment, driving up with a big smile on my face. I didn’t have a clue what I was getting myself in for.
“I think as a 20-year-old you expect life to always be easy. You get given a good hand and the chance to race in Formula One. You think the driver can make the difference, can make up for everything else within the team. But that is not the case.
“You are racing in such a competitive sport so that doesn’t happen.”
It was a lesson he had to learn at the same time as growing up in public. There were points for Williams but he was shunted on loan to Benetton/Renault for two years and a combination of uncompetitive cars, poor performances and a much publicised lifestyle drew criticism.
“Jenson Button is just a lazy playboy,” team owner Flavio Briatore said at the time, before, with considerable prescience, signing Fernando Alonso in his place.
Button found a drive at BAR-Honda, got on to the podium for the first time and took third in the championship in 2004 but the period was marked by contract wrangling, first to leave BAR by signing for Williams, then to buy out his Williams contract and stay as BAR became Honda.
Yet, from playboy to what became “Buttongate” there are, he says, no regrets: “I have made lots of mistakes in terms of contracts and spending money when I shouldn’t have spent money . . . and Frank (Williams) has got a lot of it! But no I wouldn’t change anything because it makes you the person you are.”
His decision to stick with Honda made sense – a major manufacturer with the intent of building a championship-winning car. It was not to be. The 2007 season was a “total disaster” he said of a three-year run that did, however, include his first win.
A great drive, here at the Hungaroring five years ago, illustrated one of his major strengths: the ability to drive flawlessly and call strategy in changeable conditions.
They were difficult years. Then Honda pulled out and the team entered as BrawnGP in 2009, finally giving Button a car to match his talents. He won six of the first seven races and proved he had come to understand the bigger picture among all those moments by grinding out points finishes to take the title in Brazil.
“When I crossed the line in Brazil I thought ‘Wow!’ I could suddenly breathe, all the good and the bad times came flooding back. Having been through so much, not just racing but in terms of contracts, changing team and what have you, for me it was a great way to win the world championship.”
The move to McLaren followed, where he displays the relaxed, confident air of a man who has nothing more to prove.
He shares what appears to be a warm, friendly relationship with the team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, who says of his drivers’ milestone that “longevity is to be commended in F1 because this isn’t a charitable business”, a compliment not to be taken lightly.
But for Button it remains all about the racing: “Since I won the world championship I have enjoyed racing a hell of a lot,” he says. “I still, obviously, would love to win another world championship and that is why I am here.”
That debut in Australia was a full 199 races and 11 years ago now, yet time, Button says, has flown by. “I saw some footage of me driving the car around the last corner in Melbourne,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, that could still be me now, strangely enough’. It didn’t seem like a long time ago at all. Good memories.”
GuardianService
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