Formula One News

Jenson Button Bio

Jenson Button entered the world of Formula One when Williams gave him his race debut back in 2000. Only 20 at the time, this made Jenson Britain’s youngest ever Grand Prix driver, which resulted in major hype and expectation surrounding Button in his rookie year. All of which Jenson lived up to, with a point finish in his second race, third on the grid at Spa and eighth in the championship overall at the end of the 2000 season.

However, in spite of his successful debut season, Button was loaned out by Williams to benetton for the next two years, as Williams chose to drop Jenson in favour of ChampCar star Juan Pablo Montoya. The time proved increasingly frustrating for Button, his 2001 performances were hampered by a difficult car, and he was continuously outperformed by team mate Giancarlo Fisichella, which led critics to claim that Jenson was too keen on the trappings of being an F1 driver and his focus on the job had diminished.

Jenson subsequent split with his managers who had landed him his Williams contract, which led to a more stable period during 2002 when he frequently outraced and outscored new team-mate Jarno Trulli. Button was on course to claim his first-ever podium finish at the 2002 Malaysian GP, but a suspension failure two laps to the end eant he had to limp home in fourth.

At the end of 2002 Jenson moved to BAR after he was replaced by Fernando Alonso at Benetton. It was a move that was to be the making of Button, as it was his strong performances that year, which helped see the future Honda squad through a difficult season. Button also overshadowed veteran team mate Jacques Villeneuve in the process.

In 2004, BAR replaced Villeneuve with Takuma Sato, promoting Button to the team’s number-one driver. With the Honda-BAR partnership at last finding its feet, Button scored 10 podiums and finished an impressive third in the drivers’ championship, despite not winning a single race. The only sour note to his 2004 season was the long-running dispute over who had the future rights to Button’s services. Williams was ultimately the answer, though their protege would eventually remain with BAR/Honda, after successfully negotiating a release from his contract.

In the seasons that followed, many questioned whether Button made the right decision. After their runners-up position in 2004, BAR fell to sixth in the constructors’ championship the following year, and although 2006 finally brought Button his much deserved and emotional first win at the Hungaroring, the team’s form subsequently declined. Even the appointment of Ross Brawn as the team’s technical supremo failed to spark the revival sought in 2008. Just one points-scoring finish in the 18 race season was all the Jenson was able to achieve. In fact Honda’s performances from the start were so poor that the team almost immediately turned their attention to the 2009 Championship.

However, everything was thrown up into the air at the end of the year when Honda announced they were selling their F1 team. This left Button’s career in limbo for a few months, until it was finally announced on March 6th 2009 that Ross Brawn had bought the team.

The newly named team, Brawn GP started on the back foot after only having a week or two of testing before heading to the first race of the 2009 season in Australia. The team showed good pace in the pre-season tests, and the many who believed that they had been running on fumes in order to achieve this, were quickly proven wrong at the season-opening Australian GP when Jenson qualified on pole and then went onto win the race, with team mate Rubens Barrichello in second.

Brawn GP proved to be a revelation, with Button going on to win six of the first seven races en route to finally securing his first drivers’ title with one round of the season to spare. Brawn GP also won the constructor’s championship in 2009.

However, at the end of the season Jenson surprised everyone when decided to move to Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes to partner Lewis Hamilton for 2010, and will continue to race for the Woking based team in 2011.