Jenson Button

Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . Button won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 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 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 , having led on points all season; his success also helped Brawn GP to secure that year's Constructors' Championship.…

Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . Button won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 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 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 , 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 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.

Early life and education

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.

Formula One career

Williams (2000)

at the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition. 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 on two consecutive days of testing and support from 18 of the 26 members¹ 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 at Spa-Francorchamps; and his best result was fourth in the . After concerns about his inexperience, he made a few errors during the season, the most notable coming in the 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.

Team Enstone (2001–2002)

Benetton (2001)

. For , 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 pre-season testing and he was consistently outperformed by his teammate. He finished seventeenth in the Drivers' Championship with a total of two points scored; his best result was a fifth-place finish at the . His poor form led to speculation he would be replaced before the end of the year; team principal Flavio Briatore said, "Either he shows he's super-good or he leaves the top echelon of drivers", and reportedly offered him the chance to leave. Briatore believed Button's inexperience showed as he struggled to help his team set up a competitive car. His lack of success combined with an extravagant lifestyle led some press publications to dub him a "playboy".

Renault (2002)

at the 2002 British Grand Prix In , Benetton was re-branded as Renault, and Jarno Trulli joined the team to partner Button. In a bid to improve his public image over the pre-season interval, he changed his social life habits, spending more time training, and separating from Robertson and Huysman to join John Byfield's sport managerial stable after Briatore talked to Button about Byfield. In late 2001, Briatore invited Button to spend ten days at a ranch in Kenya, to become acquainted with his peers and do physical training to eliminate a shoulder and back problem that had hindered him in 2001. Button 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. At the season's second race in Malaysia, he was set for his first podium before a rear suspension problem on 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. Briatore faced criticism for his decision, but stated "time will tell if I am wrong"; he would also accuse Button of being a "lazy playboy". In July, Button signed a two-year contract with British American Racing (BAR) with the option for a further two years after that to replace the outgoing Olivier Panis, 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, and he was impressed with the team's long-term programme. He finished the season seventh with fourteen points.

BAR/Honda/Brawn (2003–2009)

BAR (2003–2005)

Honda (2006–2008)

Brawn GP (2009)

Brawn purchased the Honda 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 , 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. car that Button drove to win the championship Button won six of the first seven races with four pole positions, having benefited from a double diffuser design making him and the Toyota and Williams teams faster than others. 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. 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 him from generating heat into its tyres in cold weather. At the , Button was hampered in qualifying by a poor choice of tyres in the wet weather and could achieve 14th position. His championship campaign was boosted by Vettel qualifying 16th, 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 remaining. At the final race of the season, the , Button qualified behind Barrichello again, but finished on the podium in third position. In the off-season, Brawn and team principal Nick Fry informed Button 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 2010 and a close to a repeat performance of the 2009 season. Brawn and Fry said Mercedes would buy-out Brawn GP without locating potential sponsors, which Button found unappealing and told his manager Richard Goodard he desired a new challenge.

McLaren (2010–2017)

was the . Goodard telephoned McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh to enquire about a drive for Button. Whitmarsh did not believe Button would leave Brawn GP since they had won the Championship; Goodard mentioned McLaren's competitiveness at the end of 2009 and partnering 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton appealed to Button. Discussions took place at the team's headquarters in Woking and a three-year deal was signed soon after Kimi Raikkonen had declined a proposal to rejoin to Woking team from Ferrari to go rallying for 2010 instead. Button said he moved because he wanted the motivation and challenge from competing alongside Hamilton, but Whitmarsh cautioned the two before the start of the season he would observe any relationship problems between them.

2010

Button won at the and the in variable weather to take the lead of the Drivers' Championship. He later finished second in Turkey after a miscommunication with his team caused him to battle Hamilton for the victory. This cooled his relationship with Hamilton who believed McLaren favoured Button. He followed with two podium finishes and a trio of points scoring finishes to remain in contention for the championship. Button retired at the after Vettel hit him and punctured the radiator of his car. Second at Monza was followed by a fourth place in both Singapore and Japan. During the weekend, Button and his entourage were threatened by a number of criminals in the favelas on his way back from qualifying at Interlagos; nobody was harmed during the incident. Button was mathematically eliminated from retaining the title with a fifth place in the race and took fifth in the championship with third in Abu Dhabi.

2011

Button's MP4-26 car for was built around his taller frame from intra-team input in late 2010. He believed the introduction of Pirelli tyres that season would suit his smooth driving style and said a world championship victory would make it difficult for him to retire from F1. Button began the season by finishing no lower than sixth in the first six races with three podium results. He won the rain-affected after two collisions dropped him to the back of the field and overtaking Vettel when the latter ran wide on the slippery track on the final lap. Button then won the , which was held in similar weather, and the , but his results over the course of the season mathematically eliminated him from championship contention when Vettel took the title in Japan. Button took three victories and twelve podium finishes to finish runner-up with 270 points.

2012

Whitmarsh wanted Button to remain at McLaren for the next three years while the latter held talks with Ferrari about a race seat in 2013. Before the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, he signed a three-year extension to his contract with McLaren. Button was satisfied with the new MP4-27 car due to McLaren finding a regulation loophole banning the blowing of exhaust gases over parts of the vehicle to improve downforce. A victory in the season-opening and two-second-place finishes at the and the were the highlights of his first half of the season. His overall performance in the first seven races fell due to difficulty in generating temperature and the correct amount of grip into the new Pirelli short-life front tyres due to his smooth driving style and him switching brake materials multiple times to try and fix the issue made it worse. Button changed the set-up of his car and adapted himself to the tyres to retain temperature for better performance. The rest of Button's season saw him achieve wins in Belgium and Brazil and top-five finishes in five of the next seven rounds for fifth overall with 188 points.

2013

Button was joined at McLaren by Ferrari Driver Academy graduate Sergio Pérez for and their relationship was cooler because the latter entered the team hastily. He was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) in March 2013. McLaren built the MP4-28 car not in advance of regulation changes for , but from scratch. This caused Button to drive an unstable car with understeer, a lack of downforce and severe tyre degradation. After finishing ninth at the season-opening , McLaren introduced components from the MP4-27 onto the MP4-28, which had no significant effect and Button continued to attain sub-par results throughout the season with a best of fourth at the season-ending . He was ninth overall with 73 points. Button was involved in aggressive driving from his teammate Pérez early in the season in Bahrain and Monaco, annoying him.

2014–2015

Button activated the terms of his contract to stay with McLaren for 2014 in September 2013, but considered taking a sabbatical from F1 following the unexpected death of his father in Monaco in January 2014. Button was joined by Kevin Magnussen, with whom he was able to build a rapport, and the MP4-29 car had an understeer from lacking front downforce and an unstable rear. He finished third at the season-opening after Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified for a fuel flow consumption infringement and his team lost a subsequent appeal against the decision. It would turn out to be his final career podium. Button achieved a quartet of fourth-place finishes and scored points seven more times for eighth in the Drivers' Championship and 126 points. Button qualified better than Magnussen ten times and scored twice as many points. Button became unenthusiastic over F1 and the press speculated on his future in the sport with rumors Alonso would be Magnussen's teammate in . He wanted to remain at McLaren but was made insecure about his career and told himself to concentrate on the present and not be concerned about the future. Dennis did not want Button to drive for McLaren but fellow team shareholder Mansour Ojjeh told him Button should remain over Magnussen after reviewing the situation. Negotiations between Button and McLaren racing director Éric Boullier and team owner Ron Dennis concluded with an agreement for Button to continue racing on 10 December. Button agreed to take a pay cut, with his contract containing the option for a second year; McLaren or Button were able to activate clauses to break the contract after the season if one of the parties desired it. Button struggled in 2015 due to an unreliable and an underpowered Honda engine lacking straightline speed, securing four top-ten finishes and a best result of sixth at the . He was rarely able to progress past the first qualifying session and took sixteenth in the Drivers' Championship with sixteen points.

2016–2017

Button was retained by the McLaren team for following contractual discussions with Dennis and meetings with aerodynamics and engineers at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC). Button received a 50 per cent pay rise by staying at McLaren for another year. He had considered returning to the Williams team but decided against it. His car's new Honda engine was more powerful and allowed him to challenge for points-scoring finishes but reliability continued to hinder him and McLaren. He finished fifteen of the 21 races that year, qualifying a season-high third at the , the highest start for the McLaren-Honda partnership. Button went on to finish the race a season-high sixth. He was unable to finish higher than eighth thereafter and ended his full-time career with a suspension failure at the season-ending . Button took fifteenth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points finishing better than Alonso five times and qualifying higher on four occasions. Before the , Button told Dennis he planned to retire after the season. Dennis asked Button to wait before returning for discussion to which he said he had already decided. He suggested Button take a sabbatical and mull over the decision to retire while resting and made Button an ambassador for McLaren. He would work in the team's simulator at MTC, represent them at sponsor functions and attempt to help them in car development. Button was retained by McLaren as reserve driver with the option to return to full-time racing for the team in if he and McLaren agreed to it. He was replaced as a GPDA director by Romain Grosjean. In April 2017, Boullier asked Button to drive in lieu of the Indianapolis 500-bound Alonso at the and agreed after Goodard told him there was no way to get out of the commitment because he was contractually bound to drive. He prepared in the team's simulator instead of testing in Bahrain because he would learn nothing by not driving on a narrow street circuit. He retired late in the race following a collision with Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein that damaged his car. In November 2017, Button was replaced as McLaren reserve driver by 2017 FIA Formula 3 European champion Lando Norris for 2018. His contract with McLaren expired without renewal at the end of 2017 allowing him to focus on other racing ventures.

Super GT career

that Button and Naoki Yamamoto drove to win the 2018 Super GT title. Button became interested in Super GT in about 2011, and discussions with Honda led to his series debut at the 2017 Suzuka 1000km in a NSX-GT for Team Mugen with teammates Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima. The trio finished twelfth following two penalties and two tyre punctures. He also considered racing as a third driver for Acura Team Penske's IMSA SportsCar Championship team, but was rejected. Button drove the full 2018 Super GT Series for Team Kunimitsu in the No. 100 GT500-class Honda NSX-GT alongside Naoki Yamamoto; Button wanted to drive a Bridgestone-shod car and drivers recommended Yamamoto because he speaks English. Button's team helped him to communicate better, adapt to the series and its culture. 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. He held off Hirakawa to win the GT500 title by three points and was the first rookie champion since Toranosuke Takagi in 2005. For the 2019 season, Button remained at Team Kunimitsu alongside Yamamoto in the renumbered No. 1 Honda. In an incident-filled season, Button and Yamamoto were taken out of the lead in the opening round at Okayama, a mistimed safety car at the second Fuji race and a poor tyre choice in the rain at Sugo cost the team possible victories. The pair achieved two podium finishes at both Fuji rounds and a sixth place at Motegi to finish eighth in the GT500 Drivers' Championship with 37 points. 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. He finished ninth in the first race and 16th in the second. Button did not enter the "Super GT × DTM Dream Race" at Fuji Speedway because his contract did not oblige him to do so, and decided to leave Super GT after 2019 because he did not want to fly frequently from the United States to Japan and wanted to explore other racing series.

Sports car career

Button made his endurance racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Spa, sharing a BMW Team Raffanelli 320i E46 with David Saelens and Tomáš Enge in the SP class, and retiring after 22 laps with fuel tank failure. Button agreed to drive most of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship sharing a BR Engineering BR1 car in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin for SMP Racing. Making his FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 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. He finished fourth at the 6 Hours of Fuji and third at the following 6 Hours of Shanghai. Button missed the 1000 Miles of Sebring and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps because of Super GT commitments, and the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans because his fiancée was due to give birth to their first child. He left the series after observing the lack of manufacturers entering LMP1 and he wanted to wait for the new car regulations to be introduced. Button made his British GT debut in the 2020 season's final round, the three-hour Silverstone 500, sharing the No. 3 Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 with team co-owner Chris Buncombe in a one-off appearance. The two finished the race in fourteenth position. Button drove Hendrick Motorsports's NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 entry alongside sports car driver Mike Rockenfeller and NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. The trio completed 285 laps and were 39th overall following a drive line fault late in the event. He entered the ten-hour Petit Le Mans (part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship) driving JDC–Miller MotorSports' Porsche 963 alongside Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm after broadcasting commitments prevented his entry to the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen. The car started ninth and finished fifth. For the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona, Button joined Louis Delétraz, Colton Herta and Jordan Taylor in sharing Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti's No. 40 Acura ARX-06 GTP car, finishing third overall. He returned to the WEC in 2024 and shared Team Jota's No. 38 Porsche 963 with Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen, deciding at the conclusion of 2023 to focus on one series. Button appeared to be slower than his teammates and seemed frustrated with slower cars until he came more comfortable by the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He finished the season nineteenth in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship, achieving five points-scoring finishes that included a season-best result of sixth at the 6 Hours of Fuji. Button remained at Jota for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and shared the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R with Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais in the Hypercar category after the team changed manufacturers from Porsche to Cadillac. His teammates helped him in making suggesting adjustments to adapt his driving style to the Cadillac, which better suited him. In eight races, Button finished in the top-ten four times, including a WEC career-best second-place result at the 6 Hours of São Paulo. He was tenth in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship, scoring 46 points. Having considered retirement halfway through the season, Button ended his professional racing career after the 8 Hours of Bahrain. He cited a lack of time to commit to another full WEC season while raising a family.

Driving style

car through the streets of Manchester in August 2011. Button has a smooth driving style; 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. This allows him to perform well in wet-weather where the front of the car tends to slide more than the rear, and many believe his smooth style better preserves the tyres during a race. He adapted his style in go-karts and transferred it to more powerful machinery. Since 2000, Button has braked with his left foot, by dragging the brake pedal and stopping the car in less time to control and modulate power. He likes to turn into a corner early under braking and balance the car on pedal application and steering, creating more strain in tyre loads for a longer physical lap but allowing for a higher minimum corner entry speed and allowing Button to adapt to a changeable or slippery track. Button is comfortable driving a car with understeer, prefers the rear to be stable into corners and on which he is able to lean on leaving them, and rarely locks the inside of his front tyres. His smooth driving also means he cannot generate the necessary tyre temperature on a cool track. Button occasionally cannot get his tyres to operate efficiently over a single lap in qualifying because his gentle steering produces less energy into the wheel. His driving gave him additional thought time and be less prone to making an error for improved consistency in races and notices events without the team necessarily instructing him on what to do. Button accurately exploits grip on a damp corner to adapt to his limits earlier than other drivers. Between 2001 and 2007, when traction control was legal in F1, 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.

Driver number

For the 2014 season, the FIA created a new sporting regulation allowing a driver to select a unique car number for use throughout their F1 career. Button chose the number 22, which was the one he was assigned in his 2009 championship season.

Public image

Button has received a varying amount of press coverage from minor to extensive on his F1 career and personal life; this effect has been labelled "Buttonmania". Prior to winning the 2009 championship, his lack of success led critics to label him "a nearly man" and "a pin-up and lightweight" for his photogenic appearance, but it ceased following his success. 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." Writing for The New York Times, Brad Spurgeon said that Button's F1 debut began a trend of teams signing young drivers and how they would cope with pressure, performance and the media in the championship. 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." Button finished second to footballer Ryan Giggs in voting for the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. He also won the BBC West Country's Sports Personality of the Year and the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award. He won the 2000 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Newcomer Award for finishing eighth in that year's F1 season, the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 2001, 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. Button was voted the Autosport Rookie of the Year in 2000, the International Racing Driver Award in 2004 and 2009, and the British Competition Driver of the Year in 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012. He won the BRDC Gold Star in 2004 and 2009, and was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame in 2017. Button was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to motorsport. Button's home town, Frome, has named a street and a footbridge over the River Frome after him, and has awarded him the freedom of the town. Button received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Bath in December 2016. He has authored five books about his life and career. Button's 2009 championship winning season and Brawn GP's rise to success is the focus of the 2023 Disney+ miniseries Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story.

Personal life

Button's hobbies include mountain biking, competing in triathlons and bodyboarding. He also maintains an automobile collection. He was engaged to the English actress and singer Louise Griffiths before ending their five-year relationship in 2005. Button was married to his long-time Japanese girlfriend and model Jessica Michibata from 2014 to 2015. He married American model Brittny Ward in 2022 with whom he has a son and a daughter. They currently reside in Los Angeles. Button supports Bristol City Football Club. 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.

Racing record

Career summary

† As Button was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.

Complete British Formula 3 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Spa 24 Hours results

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap; small number denotes the finishing position) Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. Button did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Super GT results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap; small number denotes the finishing position)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap; small number denotes the finishing position)

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

† As Button was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.

Complete British GT Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) † Not eligible for points.

Complete Extreme E results

(key)

NASCAR

(key) ( Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )

Cup Series

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377697207 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.