Background and career
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British former racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2000 to 2017. Button won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2009 with Brawn, and won 15 Grands Prix across 18 seasons. Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. He first drove in F1 with Williams for the 2000 season. The following year, he switched to Benetton, which, at the start of the 2002 season, became the Renault team, and then moved to BAR for the 2003 season. He finished third in the 2004 World Drivers' Championship before falling to ninth in the 2005 championship. BAR was subsequently renamed and became the Honda team for the 2006 season, during which Button won his first Grand Prix at the Hungarian Grand Prix after 113 races. Following the withdrawal of Honda from the sport in December 2008, Button was left without a team for the 2009 season. In February 2009, Ross Brawn led a management buyout of Honda, creating Brawn GP and recruiting Button as a driver. Button went on to win a record-equalling six of the first seven races of the 2009 season, securing the Drivers' Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix, having led on points all season; his success also helped Brawn GP to secure that year's Constructors' Championship. At the start of the 2010 season, Button moved to McLaren, partnering fellow British racer Lewis Hamilton. After finishing fifth for the team in 2010, Button ended the 2011 season as runner-up, before falling to fifth in the 2012 championship. Four more seasons with McLaren resulted in no further victories and he retired from Formula One at the end of 2016, making a one-off return at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to deputise for Fernando Alonso. From the 306 races that Button started, he won fifteen, qualified on pole position eight times, took fifty podium finishes and scored 1,235 championship points. After his F1 career, Button became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT Series alongside Naoki Yamamoto, with whom he shared a Honda racing car at Team Kunimitsu. He also competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing with support from Stewart–Haas Racing and sponsorship from Mobil 1.
Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome, Somerset and brought up in nearby Vobster, Mells. He is the fourth child of the half-South African Simone Lyons and former rallycross driver John Button from London's East End, who was well known in the United Kingdom during most of the 1970s for racing his Volkswagen Type 1, which was nicknamed the Colorado Beetle. Jenson's parents met in Newquay at a young age and were reunited after a musical concert at Longleat. According to John, Jenson was named after his Danish friend and rallycross opponent Erling Jensen, changing the "e" to an "o" to differentiate it from Jensen Motors, while Simone recalls that she named him Jenson after noticing a Jensen sports car and thought the change of spelling would be "more mannish". Button enjoyed racing from an early age, racing a BMX bike with friends after school, and began watching Formula One races with his father around the age of five. He idolised four-time world champion Alain Prost for his calm personality and intellectual approach to driving. After his parents divorced when he was seven, he and his three elder sisters were brought up by their mother in Frome. Button was educated at Vallis First School, Selwood Middle School and Frome Community College. His karting career limited his studying and he left school with one GCSE. Button failed his first driving test for driving between two cars on a narrow road.
Button's father gave him a 50cc bike for his seventh birthday; he discarded it after half an hour because it lacked speed, which would have required his father to remove its restrictor, and he disliked his father's idea of progressing to the 80cc category. John talked to rallycross driver and Ripspeed car accessories owner Keith Ripp at an Earl's Court racing car show about his son; Ripp recommended the purchase of a Zip go-kart suited for the newly formed Cadets class for eight to twelve year-old karters for the young boy. Button received the kart as a Christmas present in 1987 and he began karting at the Clay Pigeon Raceway in May 1988 aged eight following repeated questions by club members to his father on when Button would start racing.
Button was required to drive on slick tyres on a wet track because his father wanted him to learn car control on a sodden surface and taught him basic driving techniques by standing at a corner and pointing to where his son should brake. In 1989, aged nine, Button won the British Super Prix. Midway through the year, his father spoke to him about progressing to the club level since others noticed he was competitive, which Button was interested in. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship and the title with team Wright Karts. Afterwards Button told his father his objective was to compete in F1 and he was given a map to chart his progress in karting. The two agreed to give each other more autonomy and Button was mentored by mechanic Dave Spencer in moving from the Cadets to Juniors class. Spencer told him to be more aggressive and less smooth driving Junior karts because they have more power than a Cadet kart. Button was also required to manage the condition of his tyres to retain grip. Further successes followed, including three British Open Kart Championship wins. A series of sub-par performances in 1992 gave Button doubts over his ability to win races and he told his father he wanted to continue racing after dismissing the suggestion of two months away from karting. The family telephoned Spencer for advice; he and Button's father constructed the young boy's karts and influenced his school headteacher to change his fitness regime and had to eschew unhealthy beverages. Spencer helped him to observe and concentrate on how others drove their karts, and continued to coach Button until his youngest son Danny died in a multi-kart accident at the Hunts Kart Racing Club in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire in December 1994. Button was fourth in the 1994 RAC British Junior Championship after losing the opportunity to claim the title through a series of accidents. He joined the Birel team for that year's Junior Intercontinental A European Championship and raced as a professional in the Junior Intercontinental A Italian Winter Championship. He was the youngest runner-up of the Formula A World Championship at age 15. Button was signed to drive Tecno-Rotax karts for Team GKS, coming fifth in the 1996 European Formula A Championship, third in the Formula A World Cup, and third in the American Championship. In 1997, he was moved to the top-level of karting Formula Super A by his team. Button won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup for finishing second in the 1997 Japanese World Cup, and became the youngest driver and first Briton to claim the European Super A Championship. He also was runner-up in the Winter Cup before the European Super A Championship.
Aged eighteen, Button moved into single seater car racing after his mentor Paul Lemmens spoke to racing manager and former driver Harald Huysman about him. He was signed to businessman David Robertson and Huysman's managerial stable, who found him sponsorship to continue driving. Robertson wanted Button to test a Carlin Motorsport Dallara F3 Mugen-Honda car at the Pembrey Circuit and quickly became acclimated with a more powerful vehicle and extra downforce. Huysman and Robertson wanted Button to enter Formula Three (F3) but Button said he could not do so with his inexperience in car racing and did not want to enter the category for fear of immediately being uncompetitive. Button instead moved to Formula Ford for the 1998 season. He took the British Formula Ford Championship in a Haywood Racing Mygale SJ98 car with nine victories and won the season-ending Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. Button also finished runner-up in the European Formula Ford Championship with one victory from four races. At the end of 1998, Button won the annual Autosport BRDC Award, which included a test in a McLaren MP4/14 F1 car that he received in November 1999. Huysman and Robertson sought a seat for him in F3 and spoke to Promatecme team owner Serge Saulnier, who did not want to sign Button because he was not part of Renault's driver academy. Additional lobbying from Mygale and Lemmens convinced Saulnier to give Button a test at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France. He impressed Saulnier and accepted his offer to drive at Promatecme. Saulnier taught Button on the downforce of F3 cars and how to maintain it. Button drove in the British Formula 3 International Series in 1999 in a slightly underpowered Renault-Dallara F399 car compared to the Mugen-Honda engine, with guidance from trainer-physiotherapist Josef Leberer. Amongst more experienced racers, he won three times—at Thruxton, Pembrey and Silverstone—to finish the season as the top rookie driver, and third overall. He finished fifth and second respectively in the Marlboro Masters and Macau Grand Prix, losing out by 0.035 seconds to Darren Manning in Macau. Button was required to decide on his future post-season. He did not want another year in F3 and twice tested a higher-tier Formula 3000 (F3000) car with both the Super Nova Racing and Fortec Motorsport teams at the Jerez circuit in Spain, which he disliked because its sequential gearbox forced him to drive aggressively, and found the cars somewhat heavy.
In November 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at the Silverstone club circuit in a MP4/13 car and impressed team owner Ron Dennis. He also tested for the Prost team at the Circuit de Catalunya after the team owner Alain Prost was impressed by Button's ability and asked him to test. Prost offered Button a drive at his F3000 squad before becoming his F1 team's test driver for one season to prepare for competitive driving. He did not commit because Prost had not prepared to fulfill the promise of a F1 seat. Huysman and Robertson declined Dennis' offer for Button to join the McLaren team and a seat from Jaguar chairman Jackie Stewart. A vacant race seat became available at the Williams team following the departure of two-time CART champion Alessandro Zanardi. Other contenders for the seat included sports car driver Jörg Müller and Japanese Formula Three champion Darren Manning. On 24 December 1999, team founder and principal Frank Williams telephoned Button, who first thought it a joke, and asked whether he was ready to drive in F1 to which he said no. Button's father instructed him to tell Williams he was indeed ready. Button talked with Williams and BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger and a 'shoot-out' test was arranged between Button and F3000 racer and test driver Bruno Junqueira at Jerez in a Williams FW21B car modified by being fitted with a BMW engine. with Button securing the drive, even though the majority of the team's engineers preferred Junqueira. This made him Britain's youngest ever F1 driver, beating the previous record held by Stirling Moss. Button did not hold a FIA Super Licence and the FIA president Max Mosley required him to complete 300 km (190 mi) on two consecutive days of testing and support from 18 of the 26 members of the F1 Commission. The FIA chose to issue him with a super licence regardless. Button worked with a physiotherapist to help build his strength to drive an F1 car. A sixth-place finish at the season's second race in Brazil made him the youngest driver in history to score a point. In his first six races, he qualified higher than his teammate Ralf Schumacher twice, and was consistently close in pace. However, Williams had intended to use Button only until they could exercise their option to buy the highly rated Juan Pablo Montoya out of his contract at Chip Ganassi Racing. A dip in Button's form, combined with Montoya's victory in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, led to Montoya being announced as his replacement midway through the season. Williams chose not to sell Button's contract, keeping the right to recall him in 2003. He went to Benetton Formula on a two-year loan. Button's best qualification of the season was third place in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps; and his best result was fourth in the German Grand Prix. After concerns about his inexperience, he made a few errors during the season, the most notable coming in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Under safety car conditions Button swerved to avoid the pack which had bunched up, and crashed into a barrier. Button finished his debut season in eighth place with twelve points.
