It has been announced that Jenson Button will be driving for McLaren next year, meaning that he won’t be leaving F1 just yet, and former team-mate Kevin Magnussen now faces a fight to regain a seat in F1 2015; something which seems unlikely now. It was a career that seemed destined to be one of unfulfilled talent; racing in cars that on occasion could score points but never quick enough to give him regular race wins, until 2009, when a twist of fate that initially put his career in jeopardy, handed him a car that would help him to win the most prestigious prize and make him World Champion. It is worth mentioning that when this review of his career was written, I actually thought that he would be retiring!
Jenson Button caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams in 1999, after a successful two years in car racing, having become British Formula Ford Champion at age 18, and finishing third in the British Formula Three Championship, narrowly missing out on victory at the Macau Grand Prix. After tests for McLaren and Prost, a test was arranged between Button and Brazilian Formula 3000 driver Bruno Junqueira, the driver who impressed most was to partner Ralf Schumacher at Williams for the 2000 season. Button secured the drive, and became Britain’s youngest Formula 1 driver at age 20. In his first six races, he out-qualified the younger Schumacher and was often close to his more experienced team-mate in pace. Midway through the season, Button’s form dropped and, after his win in the Indy 500, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was announced as Schumacher’s partner at Williams for 2001. Williams had an option to buy the Colombian, who had previously tested for the team, and his impressive form in America secured him a chance to prove his worth in Formula 1. Button, however, was still under contract at Williams, and he was loaned out to Benetton for 2001.
The 2001 season was disastrous for Button. He finished the season with only two points and gained a reputation for being more interested in the playboy lifestyle than driving itself. After public dressing-downs from Benetton boss Flavio Briatore, Button spent the winter of 2001 and 2002 working closely with his engineers, and developed a closer understanding with them in preparation for the 2002 season, with the rebranded Renault team.
Button’s improvement was noticeable as early as the second race in Malaysia, having a podium position in the bag before a suspension problem prevented such a position, and finished fourth. By the start of the European season, Renault became a team on the move, even strategically outfoxing McLaren, leaving Button to finish in front of both their cars. However, towards the end of the European season, Briatore announced Button was to be replaced for 2003 by test driver Fernando Alonso, citing Button’s still-lingering playboy image as a reason.
Button signed up with British American Racing for 2003, partnering Jacques Villeneuve, who quickly dismissed Button as akin to a member of a boyband. Button outperformed the 1997 World Champion on numerous occasions, and Villeneuve’s contract was terminated before the final race of the season.
2004 was the first season where Button was the most experienced driver within a team, partnering Japan’s Takuma Sato. It was a year in which Button was truly able to show his talent: finishing on the podium ten times in eighteen races, as well as claiming his first pole position in San Marino, and ending the season third in the driver’s championship, he helped BAR to an unprecedented second in the Constructor’s championship. It was during the second half of that season that Button announced his intention to return to the Williams team for 2005, a surprise to many as Williams had struggled throughout the season in comparison to BAR’s new-found success. A bitter contract dispute ensued which culminated in the FIA ruling in favour of BAR, with Button forced into seeing out his contract. It was a ruling that ultimately shaped Button’s career; who knows where he would be now if he’d been allowed to return to the team that nurtured and shaped him as a 20-year-old?
2005 was a struggle for Button; despite two podium finishes, the BAR was largely uncompetitive and unreliable in the early races, the team’s terrible start culminating in falling foul of the rules after a podium finish in San Marino. Scrutineers found a second fuel tank inside the first tank of Button’s car, causing the car to be underweight when drained, and the team were stripped of the points scored in San Marino and were disqualified for the next two races. During the summer, Button claimed his pre-contract to drive for Williams from 2006 was not binding, and decided that it was in his best interests to continue with BAR. After lengthy talks, Williams released Button from his contract in exchange for £18million. In October, the remaining 55% of BAR owned by British American Tobacco was bought by Honda, and the team subsequently bared their name.
2006 started well with a fourth place in Malaysia, and Jenson was in contention to win in Australia after taking pole position. However, he dropped to fifth, where he was lying on the final lap, but as he entered the final corner, his engine blew and his car stopped short of the line by a few meagre yards was passed by everyone on the same lap and classified just out of the points. The car did not live up to the expectations in winter testing, but Button’s luck finally turned at his 113th Grand Prix in Hungary. After starting 14th due to an engine change penalty, Button gained ten places in as many laps. After Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, both of whom had led the race, retired, Button found himself in the lead, and cruised to his maiden win by over half-a-minute, becoming the first British winner of a Grand Prix event in three years.
2007 and 2008 were unmitigated disasters for the Honda team, with Button coming under criticism from some quarters, including Nigel Mansell, who accused him of under-performing, claiming that “Jenson should have won more races.”
Button accumulated a disappointing nine points over both seasons, but worse was to come: in the run up to Christmas 2008, Button, returning from winter training in Hawaii, learned that Honda, affected by the global economic crisis, announced that they were pulling out of Formula 1, leaving Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello without drives unless the team found a buyer.
As weeks and months passed, it looked as if Button’s career was at least on hiatus as a buyer was not forthcoming. However, on March 5th 2009, 24 days before the season-opener in Australia, former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn constructed a late buy-out deal, and the team was subsequently renamed ‘Brawn GP’. With the controversial “double-decker” diffuser design that was used by Brawn but not all teams, Button and Barrichello dominated the first half of the season, but the second half proved to be closer and a bigger struggle. As well as teams such as Red Bull catching up in terms of design and pace, it is here where, in my view, Button began to feel the pressure of being in the lead of the championship, which hampered his driving. Despite this, he drove one of the races of his career in Brazil, finishing fifth after qualifying fourteenth, giving him enough points to take the title with one race to go.
After the buy-out of Brawn GP by Mercedes, Button left the team and signed a three-year-deal with McLaren, partnering Lewis Hamilton, which lead to claims by former F1 driver Eddie Irvine that he would be “the best number two” in F1, and he would get “murdered” by Hamilton. He showed his talent in many races and briefly led the Championship after winning in Australia and China, but ultimately couldn’t keep up with Hamilton and finished fifth in the championship, 26 points behind his team-mate.
In 2011, Button showed improvement and showed he was capable of matching Hamilton. The two McLaren drivers won three races each, with Button’s coming in Canada, Hungary and Japan; the former being described by Button himself as the best win of his career.
Early in the race, he collided with Hamilton in wet conditions which brought out the safety car. He subsequently served a drive-through penalty for speeding under the safety car which dropped him to last, collided with Alonso, causing a puncture, and made 27 on-track overtakes during the race, the 27th being on race leader Sebastian Vettel, who Button pressured into making a mistake on the final lap in what was the longest Grand Prix in history. Button finished second in the championship, ahead of Hamilton by three places and 43 points, but a then-record 122 points behind Vettel.
2012 started the best possible way for Button, winning in Australia ahead of Hamilton, but as F1 entered the European season, Button struggled, failing to finish in the top eight in four consecutive races. Results bettered towards the end of the European races, with a second place finish in Germany, and a lights-to-flag win in Belgium. In the nail-biting decider between Vettel and Alonso in Brazil, Button qualified on the front row behind Hamilton, and his team-mate’s retirement after a collision with Nico Hulkenberg gave Button the lead, and held off the charging Alonso to win the final race of the season to cement fifth place in the final standings, a meagre two points behind Hamilton.
With Lewis Hamilton moving to Mercedes for 2013, Button was partnered with Mexican Sergio Perez, who had impressed in 2012 with Sauber. The two engaged in wheel-to-wheel battles in Monaco and Bahrain, with Button asking his team over radio to “calm him down!” After the Bahrain race, Button was publicly critical of Perez’s racing etiquette, saying that his car contact was something drivers “normally grow out of” in karting, before claiming: “Soon something serious will happen, so he has to calm down.” The season was disappointing for McLaren and Button, with no race wins and a ninth-place finish with 73 points, 24 more than eleventh-placed Perez.
This season has seen many changes in F1, notably the introduction of V6 hybrid engines. McLaren, like all teams this season, have not been competitive enough to match the pace of the Mercedes team, nor have they been consistent enough to be equal to the likes of Red Bull and Williams.
The season began under difficult circumstances for Button after the death in January of his father John, an omnipresent and popular figure in the paddock, who rarely missed a Grand Prix during his son’s career. Button, like new team-mate Kevin Magnussen (son of one-time McLaren test driver Jan), have been in or around the points places throughout the season, both finishing on the podium at the season-opener in Australia, but haven’t been able to better or match that position since.
Despite 2014 being a general disappointment, Button has put in a series of impressive drives throughout the season, and I believe that since he has been with McLaren, he has become a better driver than he was in his championship-winning season. It is fair to say that in his years at BAR and Honda, there were occasions where Button didn’t perform to the best of his ability in uncompetitive cars, which subsequently merited the criticism he received for it, but this season he has showed admirable speed in a car that hasn’t been able to regularly give him the opportunity to finish in the higher-end of the points, and from the evidence of a number of his performances this season, Button still has a lot to offer Formula 1. It would’ve been especially pertinent and somewhat cruel to let Button go now, with McLaren entering their second stint with Honda-powered cars, as Button’s name – held in high regard by Honda since his time driving for them – supposedly helped McLaren secure the engine deal in the first place.
We are yet to discover where Jenson Button will end-up beyond 2015. If his future lies in endurance racing, which has been strongly rumoured, then Formula 1 will have lost one of its more popular, calculated and erudite figures, whose often-calm and measured style of driving has earned him praise and kudos within the higher echelons of Motorsport.
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