Jenson Button

Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome, Somerset and brought up in nearby Vobster.[1] 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 his so-called Colorado Beetle Volkswagen.[2] They 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 name would be "more mannish".[3] After his parents divorced when he was seven, he and his three elder sisters were brought up by their mother in Frome.[4] Button was educated at Vallis First School, Selwood Middle School and Frome Community College.[5] 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.[6]

Button enjoyed racing from an early age, racing a BMX bike with friends after school,[7] and began watching Formula One motor racing with his father around the age of five or six. He idolised the four-time world champion Alain Prost for his calm personality and intellectual approach to driving.[8] Button's father gave him a 50cc bike for his seventh birthday; he discarded it after half an hour because of its lack of speed, which would have required his father to remove its restrictor,[9] and he disliked the idea of his father that he progress to the 80cc category of bike. John later talked to the rallycross driver and Rippspeed car accessories owner Keith Ripp at a London car show about his son; Kipp recommenced the purchase of a go-kart suited for the 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 at the age of eight.[10]

Button after finishing third at the 1996 Ayrton Senna Memorial Trophy

He was required to drive on slick tyres on a wet track because his father wanted him to learn car control on a sodden track surface and taught him basic driving techniques by standing at a corner and pointing to where his son should brake.[11] Button made an successful start: In 1989, aged nine, he came first in the British Super Prix.[12] Midway through the year, his father spoke to him about progressing to the club level since others noticed a competitive nature. Button said he was interested in a progression.[13] He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship and the title with team Wright karts.[14] Afterwards Button told his father that his objective was to compete in Formula One 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 during his move from the Cadets to Juniors classes. Spencer told him to be more aggressive and less smooth in his driving in Junior karts because they have more power than a Cadet kart. Button was also required to manage the condition of his tyres to maintain their grip.[15]

Further successes followed, including three triumphs in the British Open Kart Championship.[12] He began doubting his ability to win races in 1992 after a series of sub-par performances. Button then told his father that he wanted to continue racing after the suggestion of a two-month hiatus from karting was dismissed by him. The family telephoned Spencer for advice; he and Button's father constructed the young boy's karts and they influenced his school headteacher to change his fitness regime and had to eschew unhealthy beverages.[16] Spencer helped him to observe and concentrate on how his fellow competitors drove their karts. Button continued to be coached by Spencer until the latter's youngest son Danny died in an multi-kart accident at the Hunts Kart Racing Club in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire in late 1994.[17] Button was the youngest runner-up of the Formula A World Championship at the age of 15.[18] He was signed to drive Tecno-Rotax karts for Team GKS and was fifth in the 1996 European Formula A Championship and third in the Formula A World Cup.[19][20] In 1997, Button was moved to the top-level of karting Formula Super A by his team, and won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup for finishing second in the 1997 Japanese World Cup,[19][21] and also became the youngest driver and first Briton in history to claim the European Super A Championship.[12][21]

Aged 18, Button moved into single seater car racing after his mentor Paul Lemmens spoke to the racing manager and former driver Harald Huysman about him.[20] He was signed to the businessperson David Robertson and Huysman's managerial stable and the two men found him sponsorship to continue driving.[22] Robertson wanted Button to test a Dallara Formula Three Mugen-Honda car run by Carlin Motorsport at the Pembrey Circuit in Wales and quickly became acclimatised with a more powerful vehicle that had extra downforce. Huysman and Robertson wanted Button to enter Formula Three; the latter said he could not do so because he had no experience of car racing and did not want to enter the category for fear of immediately being noncompetitive. Button instead moved into Formula Ford for the 1998 season.[23] 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.[18][24]

At the end of 1998, Button won the annual Autosport BRDC Award. His prize included a test in a McLaren Formula One car, which he received at the end of the following year.[14] Huysman and Robertson sought a seat for him in Formula Three 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 Sauliner to give Button a test, which was held at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France. He impressed Saulnier and was offered a seat at Promatecme, which he accepted. Salunier taught Button on the downforce of Formula Three cars and how to maintain it.[25] Button drove in the British Formula 3 International Series in 1999 in a Renault-powered Dallara F399 car,[24] with guidance from trainer-physiotherapist Josef Leberer.[26] He won three times —at Thruxton, Pembrey and Silverstone—and finished the season as the top rookie driver, and third overall.[27] He finished fifth and second respectively in the Marlboro Masters and Macau Grand Prix, losing out by 0.035 seconds to winner Darren Manning in the latter.[14]

Button was required to decide on his future in motor racing after the 1999 British Formula 3 Championship had concluded. He did not want to compete in a further season in Formula Three and tested a higher-tier Formula 3000 car, which he disliked because it had a sequential gearbox that required him to drive aggressively.[28]

Button's Williams FW22 at the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.

At the end of 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at the Silverstone club circuit and impressed team owner Ron Dennis. He also tested for the Prost team because the team owner Alain Prost was impressed by Button's ability and asked him to test at the Circuit de Catalunya.[9][22] Prost subsequently invited Button and his management team to Paris in December 1999. Button was offered a drive in Formula 3000 with Prost before becoming his Formula One 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 Formula One seat.[29] Huysman and Robertson declined an offer for him to join the McLaren team after Dennis approached them and rejected a seat from Jaguar chairman Jackie Stewart.[30]

A vacant race seat became available at the Williams team, following the departure of two-time CART champion Alessandro Zanardi.[lower-alpha 1][31] On 24 December 1999, team founder and principal Frank Williams telephoned Button,[32] who first thought it was a joke,[12][31] and he asked whether the latter was ready to drive in Formula One to which he said he was not. Button's father then instructed him to telephone Williams that he was indeed ready.[32] Button and Williams met at the latter's headquarters in Grove, Oxfordshire and a 'shoot-out' test was arranged between Button and Formula 3000 racer and test driver Bruno Junqueira at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain,[32] with Button securing the drive.[lower-alpha 2] This made him Britain's youngest ever Formula One driver.[13][33] Button did not hold a FIA Super Licence and the FIA president Max Mosley required him to complete 300 km (190 mi) on two days in a row of testing and support from 18 of the 26 members of the Formula One Commission.[34] The FIA later elected to issue him with a super licence regardless.[35] Button worked with a physiotherapist to help build the strength to drive an Formula One car.[36]

A sixth-place finish at the season's second race in Brazil made him, at the time, the youngest driver in history to score a point.[37] In his first six races, he qualified higher than his teammate Ralf Schumacher twice, and was consistently close in pace.[38][39] 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.[40] 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 on a two-year loan.[41]

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.[24] 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 subsequently crashed into a barrier.[31] Button finished his debut season in eighth place with 12 points.[24]

Button at the 2001 French Grand Prix driving for Benetton.

For 2001, Button partnered experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella at Benetton, which had recently been purchased by Renault. His car was very uncompetitive due to a lack of power steering and horsepower to the faster teams coupled with a lack of testing before the season and he was consistently outperformed by his teammate.[42][43] He finished 17th in the Drivers' Championship with a total of two points scored; his best result was a fifth-place finish at the German Grand Prix.[24] His poor form led to speculation he would be replaced before the end of the year;[42] team principal Flavio Briatore said, "Either he shows he's super-good or he leaves the top echelon of drivers",[44] and reportedly offered him the chance to leave.[45] Button believed that his inexperience showed as he struggled to help his team set up a competitive car.[45] His lack of success combined with an extravagant lifestyle led some press publications to dub him a "playboy".[46]

Button competing for Renault at the 2002 British Grand Prix

In 2002, Benetton was re-branded as Renault, and Jarno Trulli joined the team to partner Button.[44] In a bid to improve his public image over the pre-season interval,[47] Button separated from Robertson and Huysman and signed to the sport managerial stable of the lawyer John Byfield.[48] He subsequently ventured for nine days to a ranch in Kenya to become acquainted with his peers and undertake physical training to eliminate a shoulder and back problem that had hindered him during 2001.[47][49] Button later spent a lot of time working with his engineering team and felt there was an improved understanding between them; Button described himself as "very confident" for the season.[44]

At the season's second race in Malaysia, he was set for his first podium before a rear suspension problem in the final lap dropped him to fourth place. Button's performances were greatly improved from 2001 because his car had power steering and launch control; although often outqualified by Trulli, he showed the faster race pace to outscore his more experienced teammate. Despite Button's performances, and his desire to stay with Renault, he was told by Briatore by telephone that test driver Fernando Alonso would replace him in 2003.[50] Briatore faced criticism for his decision, but stated "time will tell if I am wrong";[50] he would also accuse Button of being a "lazy playboy".[12] In July, Button signed a two-year contract with a two-year option for British American Racing (BAR), partnering 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, after discussions with several teams fell through. An important factor in his decision was the chance to work with David Richards, the BAR team principal.[51] He finished the season seventh with 14 points.[24]

Ross Brawn, the former team principal of Honda, purchased the team for a nominal fee and renamed it as Brawn GP in early March 2009. Button signed a contract to drive for the team in 2009, and took a pay cut as part of the agreement. Although he was installed by bookmakers as a 100–1 outsider for the championship, Button's Brawn BGP 001 car was quick and reliable in pre-season testing in Europe due to an efficient aerodynamic package, a powerful Mercedes-Benz V8 engine and grippy slick tyres. The car's seat was lowered to make him comfortable.[88] Button won six of the first seven races with four pole positions,[89] having benefited from a double diffuser design that gave him and the Toyota and Williams teams a pace advantage over others.[90][91] He matched the achievement set by former world champions Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher.[92] Once the major teams had introduced their own reconfigured diffusers Button's dominance ended, averaging sixth position in the following ten races and scoring 35 points after accumulating 61 in the first seven.[89] This was due to the team spending 10 per cent of its allocated £7 million budget on developing the car and Button's smooth driving style preventing from generating heat into its tyres in cold weather.[93]

The Brawn BGP 001 car that Button drove to win the 2009 championship

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Button was hampered in qualifying by a poor choice of tyres in the wet weather and could achieve only fourteenth position. His championship campaign was boosted by Vettel qualifying sixteenth, but team-mate and closest rival Barrichello qualified on pole. In the race, Button finished fifth, taking enough points to secure the championship with one round to spare.[91] At the final race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Button qualified behind Barrichello again, but was able to achieve a podium by coming third.[94] With 169 starts, Button made the second-highest number of race starts before becoming World Champion. Only Nigel Mansell (with 176 starts) had competed in more races than Button before winning the World Championship.[95]

In the off-season, Brawn and team princial Nick Fry met Button and his management team to discuss his future. They informed Button that they wanted him to sign an extension to his contract and be paired with Nico Rosberg. Button asked for a commitment to car development for the next season and a close to a repeat performance of the 2009 championship. Brawn and Fry then said Mercedes would buy-out Brawn GP without locating potential sponsors. He found the prospect unappealing and told his manager Richard Goodard that he desired a new challenge.[96]

The Honda NSX-GT that Button and Naoki Yamamoto drove to win the 2018 Super GT title.

Button became interested in racing in the Super GT Series in late 2016 and discussions with Honda led to him making his series debut at the 2017 Suzuka 1000km in a NSX-GT for Team Mugen with teammates Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima.[139] The trio finished 12th after incurring two penalties and two tyre punctures.[140] He also considered racing as a third driver for Acura Team Penske's IMSA SportsCar Championship team, but was rejected.[141] Button drove the full 2018 Super GT Series for Team Kunimitsu in the No. 100 GT500-class Honda NSX-GT alongside Naoki Yamamoto.[142] Button's team helped to communicate better and adapt to the series and its culture.[143] He and Yamamoto won at Sportsland Sugo and took two second-place finishes to enter the season-ending race at Twin Ring Motegi equal on points with the TOM'S duo of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy.[144] He held off Hirakawa to win the GT500 championship by three points and was the first rookie title winner since Toranosuke Takagi in 2005.[145]

For the 2019 season, Button remained at Team Kunimitsu alongside Yamamoto in the renumbered No. 1 Honda.[146] In an incident-filled season, Button and Yamamoto were taken out of the lead in the opening round at Okayama,[147] and then a mistimed safety car at the second Fuji race and a poor tyre choice in the rain at Sugo cost the team possible wins.[148] The pair ultimately scored two podiums at the two Fuji rounds as well as a sixth place in Button's final Super GT race in Motegi to finish eighth in the GT500 Drivers' Championship with 37 points.[149] In October 2019, he drove the final two races of the season-ending Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) round at the Hockenheimring in his Team Kunimitsu NSX car as Honda's wild card entry.[150] He finished ninth in the first race and 16th in the second.[151] Button did not enter the "Super GT × DTM Dream Race" at Fuji Speedway because his contract did not oblige him to do so,[152] and left Super GT at the end of 2019 because he did not want to fly frequently from the United States to Japan and wanted to explore other racing series.[153]

Button made his endurance racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Spa with BMW Team Raffanelli. Sharing a BMW 320i E46 with David Saelens and Tomáš Enge in the SP class, the trio retired after 22 laps due to a fuel tank failure.[154][155] He began discussions with SMP Racing to drive a BR Engineering BR1 car in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class alongside Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin in April 2018.[156] Button and SMP Racing concluded with an agreement that would see him enter most of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship.[lower-alpha 7][157] Making his FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, electronic problems dropped the car down the order before the team retired with an engine failure late in the race with Button driving at the time.[158] He took a fourth-place finish at the 6 Hours of Fuji and was third at the following 6 Hours of Shanghai,[142] Button missed the 1000 Miles of Sebring and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps because of Super GT commitments,[159] and the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans because his fiancée was due to give birth to their first child intermittently.[lower-alpha 8][160]

Button was invited to the Race of Champions six times: in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017, reaching the semi-finals of the Nations Cup with Andy Priaulx for Team Autosport in 2007 and 2008 and finishing second in 2009. His best performances in the Race of Champions were the semi-finals in 2009 and the quarter-finals in 2017.[161] In 2019, Button drove off-road races in a Rocket Motorsports-entered Brenthel Industries Spec 6100 TT class truck with 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Chris Buncombe and managing director Mazen Fawaz his co-drivers.[162] This came about when Button told Buncombe the pair would race the Baja 1000 as a 40th birthday present for the latter and searched for a track and components for it.[163] Navigated by Terry Madden, he finished no higher than the top 20 in the Mint 400 with retirements in the Vegas to Reno and the Baja 1000 races.[164] In 2020, while motor racing was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Button took part in eSports racing events.[165]

Button driving a McLaren MP4-23 car through the streets of Manchester in August 2011.

Button has a smooth driving style;[89] journalist Mark Hughes wrote in 2009, "Button has a fantastic feel for how much momentum can be taken into a corner and this allows him to be minimal in his inputs—his steering and throttle movements in particular tend to be graceful and beautifully co-ordinated."[166] This allows him to perform well in wet-weather where the front of the car tends to slide more than the rear,[61] and many believe using his smooth style he can conserve his tyres better during race conditions than other drivers.[167] He adapted his style in his go-karting career and transferred it to more powerful machinery.[168] Button brakes with his left foot, which he has done since 2000,[38] in a manner that drags the brake pedal and stops the car in a shorter amount of time in order to control and modulate power.[169][170] He likes to turn into a corner early while braking and balance the car on pedal application and steering.[171] This creates more strain in the tyre loads for a longer physical lap but allows for a higher minimum speed entering a corner and allowing Button to adapt to a changeable or slippery track.[169]

He is comfortable driving a car with understeer,[168] prefers its rear to be stable into corners and on which he is able to lean on leaving them,[172] and rarely locks the inside of his front tyres.[169] His smooth driving also means he cannot generate the required amount of temperature into his tyres on a cool track or it was undemanding on him.[166] Button occasionally cannot get his tyres to operate efficiently over a single lap in qualifying because of his gentle steering producing less energy into the wheel.[61][168] His driving gave him additional thought time and be less prone to making an error to improve consistency in races and notices events without the team necessarily instructing him on what to do.[61] Button accurately exploits grip on a damp track's corners to adapt to his limits earlier than other drivers. During 2001 and 2007, when traction control was legal in Formula One, he was able to control the throttle pedal to prevent wheelspin, allowing him to be as fast due to his feel for grip exiting a turn.[171]

The BBC signed Button to promote its BBCi digital television interactive service from December 2003 to January 2004.[174] He is a brand ambassador for Head & Shoulders, and appeared in advertising campaigns for the company.[175] Other companies that Button has done business are Hilton, Hugo Boss, Santander Bank, Tag Heuer, Vodafone.[175] and Baylis & Harding.[176] As a result of Button's endorsement money and Mercedes salary, he was listed as one of the world's top-earning drivers in motorsports by Forbes between June 2012 and June 2013.[177]

Button is also involved in charitable work through the creation of The Jenson Button Trust. Established in March 2010, the Trust provides donations to a number of charitable causes. Each year the Trust will select and nominate charitable beneficiaries to which the funds will be distributed.[178] He is a patron of Make-A-Wish Foundation UK to grant the wishes of terminally ill children and young persons,[179] a sport ambassador for both The Prince's Trust and the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation,[180][181] and supports the Sean Edwards Foundation.[182]

Button ran a restaurant, Victus, in Harrogate from 2011 to 2012.[6] In 2012, he, Goodard and public relations officer James Williamson founded the sports agency The Sports Partnership to provide public relations services and management for the sporting industry.[183] Button, Buncombe and team principal Bob Neville founded the sports car racing team Jenson Team Rocket RJN in late 2018, which competes in the GT World Challenge Europe.[184] He was on the judging panel of the 2003 UK F1 Drivers' Challenge which was broadcast on the Five television programme Be A Grand Prix Driver,[185] voiced his own character in the animated cartoon series Tooned,[110] and since the 2018 British Grand Prix, has analysed select races for Sky Sports F1.[186]

Button has received a varying amount of press coverage from minor to extensive on his Formula One career and personal life;[38][187][188] this effect has been labelled "Buttonmania".[189] Ben Anderson of Autosport notes that the driver "is rarely picked as one of grand prix racing’s true elite drivers" and is not "discussed in the same breath as those, such as Schumacher and Ayrton Senna" due to "a lack of absolute dynamism behind the wheel in difficult technical circumstances – perhaps holds him back from being regarded as among the true elite."[61] Writing for The New York Times, Brad Spurgeon said that Button making his debut in Formula One was the beginning of a trend of teams signing young drivers and how they would cope with pressure, performance and the media in the championship.[190] BBC Sport's Andrew Benson called him "urbane and eloquent. Good-looking and charismatic, he is a marketing person's dream, and has a ready wit that can edge into sarcasm if he is impatient or uncomfortable with a situation."[172]

Button finished second to footballer Ryan Giggs in voting for the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.[191] He also won the BBC West Country's Sports Personality of the Year and the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award.[192] He won the 2000 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Newcomer Award for finishing eighth in that year's Formula One season,[193] the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 2001,[194] and the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy as the most successful British or Commonwealth driver in a season five times: from 2004 to 2006, 2009 and 2011.[195] Button was voted the Autosport Rookie of the Year in 2000,[31] the International Racing Driver Award in 2004 and 2009,[196] and the British Competition Driver of the Year in 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012.[197] He won the BRDC Gold Star in 2004 and 2009,[198][199] and was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame in 2017.[200]

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to motorsport.[201] Button's home town, Frome, has named a street and a footbridge carrying the River Frome after him,[202] and has awarded him the freedom of the town.[5] Button received an honourary doctorate in engineering from the University of Bath in December 2016.[203] He has authored five books about his life and career.[lower-alpha 9]

His hobbies include mountain biking, competing in triathlons and body boarding, and maintains a car collection.[193] He was engaged to the actress and singer Louise Griffiths before ending their five-year relationship in 2005. Button was married to his long-time girlfriend and model Jessica Michibata from 2014 to 2015.[209] He is engaged to model Brittny Ward, with whom he has a son, and reside in Los Angeles.[208]

Button has at least three tattoos: a black coat button on his right forearm; a large tribal design encompassing his left shoulder and upper chest; and Japanese kanji-characters on his ankle which says "一番" (Ichi ban, "Number One" in Japanese); this was done before he won the world title, and is the name of Button's triathlon team. Since mid-2010, the same legend has appeared on Button's race helmet.[210]

On 3 August 2015, Button and his then wife Jessica were burgled at a rented Saint-Tropez home while staying with friends when robbers looted the house and stole belongings worth £300,000, including his wife's £250,000 engagement ring. Reports suggested that the couple might have been gassed through the air conditioning system prior to the burglars' entry into the building.[211]

• Button, Jenson (2010). A Championship Year (UK ed.). London, England: Orion Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4091-1827-5.
• Jones, Bruce (2010). "Part 1: The Story of Formula One: The 2000s". The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One (12th ed.). London, England: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-304-0.
• Jones, Bruce (2011). "Review of the 2010 Season". Grand Prix 2011: The Official ITV Sport Guide. London, England: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84442-088-9.
• May, Reg (November 2013). Racing With Heroes. Dorchester, England: Veloce Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84584-654-1.
• Button, Jenson (2017). Life To The Limit. London, England: Blink Publishing. ISBN 978-1-911600-34-3.
• Button, Jenson (2019). How To Be An F1 Driver: My Guide To Life In The Fast Lane. London, England: Blink Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78870-261-4.
• Hamilton, Maurice (2020). Formula One: The Champions: 70 years of legendary F1 drivers. London, England: White Lion Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78131-946-8.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jenson Button.

• Official website
• Jenson Button on IMDb
• Jenson Button career summary at DriverDB.com