Jenson Button

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Jenson Button
Button at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
F1 Record
Nationality	British
Car #	12
Current team	Honda Racing F1 Team
Team for 2007	Honda Racing F1 Team
Grands Prix	118
World Championships	0
Wins	1
Podium finishes	14
Pole positions	3
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	2000 Australian Grand Prix
First win	2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
Last win	2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	2006 Brazilian Grand Prix
2006 Championship position	6th (50 points)
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Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is an English Formula One driver currently racing for the Honda Racing F1 team. He won his first Grand Prix in Hungary, on August 6, 2006 after 113 races.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Formula One 2.1 Early years at Williams, Benetton and Renault 2.2 Breakthrough at BAR 2.2.1 Seasons 2003–2004 2.2.1.1 Contract disputes 2.2.2 Season 2005 2.2.2.1 More contract disputes 2.3 Honda F1 2.3.1 Season 2006 2.3.2 Season 2007 3 Complete Formula One results 4 Race of Champions 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Jenson Button was born on 19 January 1980, in Frome, Somerset, England. He is the son of former rallycross ace John Button (well-known for his so-called Colorado beetle Volkswagen), whose best overall result was to become the runner-up in the RAC British Rallycross Championship of 1976. His parents are divorced, and he has 3 sisters. Button junior began karting at age eight, after his father bought him his first kart, and he generally dominated every race in which he took part. In 1991, he won the British Cadet Kart Championship, taking first place in all 34 races. In 1997, he became the youngest driver ever to win the European Super A Championship. He switched from karts to cars in 1998, winning the British Formula Ford Championship that same year for Haywood Racing. Button entered Formula Three in 1999, winning two races and placing third in the British Championship.

[edit] Formula One

[edit] Early years at Williams, Benetton and Renault

Button won the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year award in 1999. He began testing in F1 in 2000, switching between teams, often outpacing Prost's regular driver Jean Alesi in testing at Barcelona. This auspicious debut caught the attention of Sir Frank Williams of WilliamsF1, who wanted Button as his test driver. However, Button quickly began outpacing Williams' second driver, Bruno Junqueira, so Button was contracted as the team's second race driver. He finished eighth in the 2000 Drivers' Championship, proving that he was genuinely fast by outscoring his teammate (the more experienced Ralf Schumacher) on many occasions. His best races of the season were a fourth place finish at the German Grand Prix and a fifth place showing in Belgium (after having qualifed third).

In 2001, although still under contract with Williams, Button drove for Benetton which had just been purchased by Renault. He had quite a dismal season; the car, which was constantly under development that year, was never fast, nor was Button. He did, however, place fifth at the German Grand Prix, but finished a disappointing seventeenth in the drivers championship that year.

In 2002 Renault renamed Benetton as Renault F1. Though his teammate Jarno Trulli routinely outpaced him in qualifying, Button had the superior race pace. He narrowly missed third place (and his first podium) at the Malaysian Grand Prix, being passed by Michael Schumacher in the last lap due to a suspension failure in his Renault, instead finishing the race fourth. The Brazilian Grand Prix gave him another fourth place; he would finish seventh in that year's drivers championship.

For the 2003 season team principal Flavio Briatore replaced Button with Fernando Alonso, previously test driver for the team. Despite a "huge outcry"^[2] Briatore confidently stated "Time will tell if I am wrong." In 2005 Alonso won the Drivers' Championship with Renault, while Button had yet to win a race and was involved in his second contract dispute in two years. The Times quoted Briatore as saying "Jenson is a fine driver but there were too many contracts, too many things in the background."^[2]

[edit] Breakthrough at BAR

[edit] Seasons 2003–2004

In 2003, Button joined the BAR team alongside former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Their relationship was not good — bad blood arose between them when Villeneuve spoilt a points-finish for Button in the first race of the year (at the Australian Grand Prix) by coming into the pits when it was Button's turn to pit. This resulted in a season-long "war of words" in the press between the two BAR teammates. However, as the season progressed, Button's times were consistently better than Villeneuve's, his best result being a fourth place in Austria. Unfortunately, Button crashed heavily (a 180mph shunt into a wall) during Saturday practice at Monaco ^[3], causing him to miss both the race and the following testing session at Monza. By the end of the season, though, things were looking up, and at the United States Grand Prix Button led a lap for the first time. He finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship that year with 17 points, with teammate Villeneuve scoring just 6.

In 2004, Button and BAR-Honda made a surprise jump almost to the top of the heap (beneath only the ubiquitous Michael Schumacher and Ferrari). He finished the first race (Australian Grand Prix) in sixth place after a brilliant qualifying session, and in Malaysia Button landed his first ever podium finish with a third place, which he reprised at the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. His (and BAR's) first pole position came in April at the San Marino Grand Prix, in which he finished second. 2004 also saw Button come close to winning a race, at the Monaco Grand Prix, although he eventually finished second. By clinching third place in the 2004 season with a total of 85 points, Button confirmed his position as a significant challenger to the F1 crown.

[edit] Contract disputes

On 5 August 2004 Button announced that he had signed a two-year contract to return to Williams from the start of the 2005 season; an apparent loophole in his BAR contract permitted him to leave if Honda's commitment to the team was in any doubt. BAR boss David Richards promptly vowed to fight to keep his driver, though Sir Frank Williams maintained that the switch was entirely legal. The FIA Contract Recognition Board (CRB) held a hearing to determine Jenson's 2005 status on October 16 in Milan, Italy, concluding that he was contracted to BAR-Honda for the 2005 season ^[4].

[edit] Season 2005

A poor start to the 2005 Formula One season, which included a disqualification at the San Marino Grand Prix due to the fuel system of the car allegedely 'hiding' fuel to finish above minimum weight despite potentially being able to run lighter during the race, and hence a further two-race ban (allowing him to make his commentary debut, for ITV Sport, in Monaco), appeared to have picked up after he took his second pole of his career at Montreal. However he started that race poorly, and crashed on lap 46 while in third place. Despite having to wait until the halfway point of the season to score his first World Championship point of the year, things improved considerably towards the end of the year. After a fourth place finish at Magny-Cours Button placed himself second on the grid for his home grand prix at Silverstone but another slow start saw him lose position and poor race pace dropped him through the field to finish fifth

Button has always gone well at the Hockenheim circuit, and 2005 was to be no exception. Putting his BAR-Honda on P2 in qualifying for the 2005 German Grand Prix, he then went on to finish third, his first podium finish of the season.

[edit] More contract disputes

In 2005 Button again found himself in contractual controversy. Despite having signed a contract to drive for the Williams team for 2006 he judged the likely prospects for that team to have declined as their engine suppliers BMW had purchased the Sauber team and were to stop supplying engines to Williams. Frank Williams was adamant that the contract must be honoured despite Button claiming that circumstances had changed and he had a right to remain at BAR.

On 21 September 2005, BAR confirmed that Button would once again drive for them in 2006 (having bought out his contract from Williams for a reported $30m) where he would partner ex-Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello ^[5].

[edit] Honda F1

For the start of the 2006 F1 season, BAR Honda were fully purchased by Honda and became a full works team, changing the name to Honda Racing F1 Team ^[6].

[edit] Season 2006

The 2006 season saw Button's teammate change from Japanese Takuma Sato, who moved to the Super Aguri team, to the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who moved from Ferrari after years of playing second fiddle to Michael Schumacher. The pre-season testing seemed to suggest that Honda would have one of the strongest race packages on the grid, but the 2006 season didn't deliver as well as hoped. It has proved to be a season with highs and many lows, with Button attaining his first ever Grand Prix win at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. To begin with, at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix he secured 5 points with 4th place, and the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix landing himself an early podium with 3rd. However, at the Australian Grand Prix, after setting a stunning pole position lap time, Jenson blew an engine on the last lap in the race whilst coming third, purposefully stopping approximately 20m from the finish line, to avoid an engine penalty - which many considered to be a curious tactical move. Races since have consisted of poor qualifying and poor races. He has secured a few more points, but a very low point was the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix where he qualified 14th, being knocked out in the 2nd qualifying session, and only managing to finish 11th. The qualifying of the 2006 British Grand Prix was also a disaster - especially - in front of his home crowd. In the first session, after one flying lap, he got pulled into the Weighbridge and was released with very little time left to complete a lap adequate to get him into 16th, to qualify for the 2nd session. He failed this and started the 2006 British Grand Prix from 19th. After a blinding few opening laps and overtaking moves - Jenson suffered an oil leak and spun off on lap 8.

At the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix, Button managed to out-qualify his teammate for the first time since Imola. However, after battling with David Coulthard in 8th, Button got passed by him and lost his chance for a point. Another retirement occurred at the 2006 United States Grand Prix when Jenson was spun by Montoya (in an expensive wreck that took out 7 cars) and was forced to retire due to accident damage. At the 2006 French Grand Prix, Jenson Button retired once more due to an engine failure. Qualifying for the German Grand Prix, however, brought a ray of sunshine into the bleak performance of qualifying this season. After a slightly shakey Q1, where he, once again, got pulled into the weighbridge - Jenson managed to get onto the second row of the grid with P4. After running for a while during the race in a strong P3, Jenson eventually finished back in P4.

Button took the first win of his career in 2006 at a chaotic 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix - the 113th Grand Prix start of his career ^[1]. In doing so he overcame a 10-grid slot penalty for changing his engine (the second driver after Räikkönen to win a race despite this penalty), which meant he started 14th. The race was badly affected by heavy rain. Button passed a number of drivers in the early laps - including championship contender Michael Schumacher - and was up to fourth by lap 10. Following the retirement of leading drivers Kimi Räikkönen (accident) and Fernando Alonso (driveshaft failure) he went on to win the race by over 40 seconds from Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld. Alonso was behind Button on the racetrack when he retired, although Button still had one pitstop to make.^[7] Button's win beats Nigel Mansell's 1989 win from 12th on the grid at the Hungaroring. Jenson Button was the first British driver to win since David Coulthard in March 2003 and the first English F1 driver to win in nearly 7 years. His victory comes 13 years after Damon Hill won his first F1 race at the very same circuit.

The Turkish Grand Prix held many expectations due to the previous race, and Jenson ended a strong 4th. The next three races, Italy, China, and Japan all gave Jenson strong points positions with 4ths and 5ths. In the last 4 races of the season, Jenson had the third largest total of points of all the drivers. This prompted him to make a bid to be part of the title race next year.^[8] A hard sought after 3rd place in the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix from 14th (due to problems with traction control during qualifying) tied up the year for Jenson with 56 points in 6th place.

[edit] Season 2007

Jenson will compete in this season with the Honda F1 team once again. His team mate will be Rubens Barrichello.

Jenson recently sustained 2 hairline cracks to his ribs after a karting incident meaning that Jenson has not been able to take part in winter testing ready for the 2007 season.^[9]

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	WDC	Points
2000	Williams	AUS Ret	BRA 6	SMR Ret	GBR 5	ESP 17	EUR 10	MON Ret	CAN 11	FRA 8	AUT 5	GER 4	HUN 9	BEL 5	ITA Ret	USA Ret	JPN 5	MYS Ret			Williams	8th	12
2001	Benetton	AUS Ret	MYS 11	BRA 10	SMR 12	ESP 15	AUT Ret	MON 7	CAN Ret	EUR 13	FRA 16	GBR 15	GER 5	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	USA 9	JPN 7			Benetton	17th	2
2002	Renault	AUS Ret	MYS 4	BRA 4	SMR 5	ESP 12	AUT 7	MON Ret	CAN 15	EUR 5	GBR 12	FRA 6	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 5	USA 8	JPN 6			Renault	7th	14
2003	BAR	AUS 10	MYS 7	BRA Ret	SMR 8	ESP 9	AUT 4	MON DNS	CAN Ret	EUR 7	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER 8	HUN 10	ITA Ret	USA Ret	JPN 4				BAR	9th	17
2004	BAR	AUS 6	MYS 3	BAH 3	SMR 2	ESP 8	MON 2	EUR 3	CAN 3	USA Ret	FRA 5	GBR 4	GER 2	HUN 5	BEL Ret	ITA 3	CHN 2	JPN 3	BRA Ret		BAR	3rd	85
2005	BAR	AUS 11	MYS Ret	BAH Ret	SMR DSQ	ESP EX	MON EX	EUR 10	CAN Ret	USA DNS	FRA 4	GBR 5	GER 3	HUN 5	TUR 5	ITA 8	BEL 3	BRA 7	JPN 5	CHN 8	BAR	9th	37
2006	Honda	BAH 4	MYS 3	AUS 10	SMR 7	EUR Ret	ESP 6	MON 11	GBR Ret	CAN 9	USA Ret	FRA Ret	GER 4	HUN 1	TUR 4	ITA 5	CHN 4	JPN 4	BRA 3		Honda	6th	56

[edit] Race of Champions

On September 19, 2006, it was announced that Button will represent England in the 2006 Race of Champions.^[10]

[edit] Trivia

• Button was engaged to Fame Academy's Louise Griffiths for two years. Their relationship ended in April 2005.

• Like most Formula One drivers, Button resides in the principality of Monaco, and also has properties in the UK and in Bahrain.

• Hobbies include mountain biking and body boarding. He is also a keen fan of Bristol City who are looking for promotion from League One.

• Button appeared on the 30 July episode of Top Gear (recorded 26 July) where presenter Jeremy Clarkson mocked his F1 car for having a windscreen which was bad for aerodynamics. The following Sunday, Button won his first Grand Prix though it is not known if the windscreen was removed.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jenson Button

• Jenson Button's official website
• Jenson Button profile and statistics
• Honda Racing F1 official website
• Jenson Button career statistics

Constructors and drivers competing in the 2007 Formula One championship
McLaren	Renault	Ferrari	Honda	BMW	Toyota
1 Alonso 2 Hamilton	3 Fisichella 4 Kovalainen	5 Massa 6 Räikkönen	7 Button 8 Barrichello	9 Heidfeld 10 Kubica	11 Schumacher 12 Trulli
Red Bull	Williams	Toro Rosso	Spyker	Super Aguri
14 Coulthard 15 Webber	16 Rosberg 17 Wurz	18 Liuzzi 19 Speed	20 Albers 21 ?	22 Sato 23 Davidson

Persondata
NAME	Button, Jenson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Button, Jenson Alexander Lyons
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Formula 1 driver
DATE OF BIRTH	19 January 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH