MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 17

JENSON BUTTON
GRANDS PRIX - 155
WINS - 1
POLE POSITIONS - 3
POINTS SCORED - 232
--- F1 CAREER ---
2000 - Williams BMW - 8th - 12pts
2001 - Benetton Renault - 17th - 2pts
2002 - Renault - 7th - 14pts
2003 - BAR Honda - 9th - 17pts
2004 - BAR Honda - 3rd - 85pts
2005 - BAR Honda - 9th - 37pts
2006 - Honda - 6th - 56pts
2007 - Honda - 15th - 6pts
2008 - Honda - 18th - 3pts

So often in recent years, people seem to look at him and think "why oh why is he driving for that team?" They say that because they know that Jenson Button from Frome in Somerset is a top notch driver who given the right machinery has the potential and the talent to make it really big in the sport, unfortunately his unyielding loyalty to his team at Honda who have over the years given him cars not worthy of his talents have been a stumbling block.

Jenson is the son of John Button, himself a successful rallycross driver and he would be a big help as little Jenson made his way through the ranks frighteningly quickly. After a stint in karting, he made his debut in Formula Ford in 1998 at the age of just 18, in that first season, he won the title with ease in a tiny Haywood Racing prepared Mygale, his efforts also helped Jenson to win the highly prestigious McLaren Autosport Prize which is an award judged by some of the country's most important motor racing big-wigs and also the odd former F1 driver too, he beat future Champ Car star Justin Wilson and future A1GP race winner Robbie Kerr to the prize in December 1998. As part of his prize, Button got his first taste of Formula 1 machinery, a test in one of McLaren's world title winning Grand Prix cars.

For 1999, Button made the logical step up to British Formula 3 with the Promatecme squad and in his rookie season, he performed wonders, in 16 races, he took 2 pole positions and 3 race wins on his way to 3rd spot in the championship behind Luciano Burti and the eventual champion Marc Hynes, he also went on to finish a magnificent 2nd at the main showcase for grand prix stars of the future The Macau Grand Prix behind future IndyCar driver Darren Manning. Now the logical step to take at the time after this was Formula 3000 (the forerunner to todays GP2 series) but it would take an unusual twist.

After the F3 season, Button used up his Autosport prize, that test in the McLaren, he also had a test in one of Alain Prost's cars and set some great laps. But then came an incredible opportunity, after the dismissal of Alex Zanardi from his team, Frank Williams was looking for a driver to come in to replace the Italian in his 2nd car alongside Ralf Schumacher. And Williams had been looking at Jenson's progression with great intrest, so much so that he offered him a place in a "shootout" between him and the teams test driver and Formula 3000 star Bruno Junqueira. Junqueira set the pace at first then Button went out and did a faster lap time, Junqueira went faster again to try and show the young gun a thing or 2, but then Button went faster still. Frank's decision was made, Button was signed on the spot by Williams for the 2000 season.

When the news broke, it caused great excitement amongst British racing fans who were still coming to terms with the retirement of Damon Hill as they thought they had a new hero to cheer. And in his debut season, he certainly didnt disappoint, he was regularly on the pace with Ralf Schumacher and at times he outqualified him, but the crowning moment of his debut season was a stunning qualifying performance on the notorious Spa-Francorchamps track where he qualified a brilliant 3rd. He finished 8th in the championship on 12 points, but a number of rookie mistakes plus the imminent arrival of Juan Pablo Montoya meant Button was hounded out of Williams.

He found himself a drive at Benetton for 2001 after the sacking of Alex Wurz, but he was victim of joing the once great team at a bad time, they had just been bought out by Renault and the 2001 season was dismissed by the new owners as a "development" year, Button endured a miserable season where he only scored 2 points. 2002 was better though, with the team renamed Renault, a brand new car and a new teammate in Jarno Trulli, he shone in a season dominated by Ferrari. Despite scoring an impressive 14 points though, he wasnt favoured by the team manager Flavio Briatore who wanted to put the young F3000 star Fernando Alonso in the seat alongside Trulli. Button as a result just like at Williams was hounded out, but he would find salvation elsewhere.

BAR took a punt on Button and signed him for 2003 to partner the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, here would start a relationship between him and the team that sticks to this day. In a very open season, he consistently outclassed his more illustrious teammate and amassed his best points total so far of 17 points. He also had the honour of leading a race for the first time too this season.

There was a lot of promise for 2004, the new car had performed well in testing, new teammate Takuma Sato provided a great challenge for Button and Honda had given the team (reportedly) the most powerful engine on the grid, this was exploited to devastating effect. Button would score points in all but 3 races, finished on the podium TEN times and took his very first pole position in San Marino, he ended the season 3rd in the championship on 85 points and helped the BAR team to 2nd in the constructors on 119 points, the only downside being that they were still miles off Ferrari who had won 15 of the 18 races and scored a massive 262 points. Hopes were high for 2005 but they were shot to pieces after the San Marino GP, a fuel tank infringement on the car was discovered and the team subsequently were banned for 2 races which included Monaco, he recovered well though in the 2nd half of the season to claim 2 podiums and score 37 points, during the season he settled a bitter legal row between himself and Frank Williams who claimed to have an option on his services for 2006, settled to a huge personal cost to Button paying out his contract to the tune of £30million of his own money to stay with BAR. As a reward for his committment, he signed a new long term deal with Honda (who had bought out the BAR squad) worth a reported £20million a season.

For 2006, he would get for the first time, a top drawer teammate in Rubens Barrichello, and together they repaid their loyalty to the team by delivering some great results, most spectacularly for Button, his first (and so far only) win at Hungary. This was made more spectacular by the fact he had started that race from way down in 14th place after suffering a 10 place grid penalty for an engine change. The changeable weather conditions helped a lot too. Overall the win aside, it was a very strong season for Button scoring 56 points meaning a welcome return to the top 6 in the championship.

2007 would start in difficult fashion, a karting accident left Button with hairline rib fractures which limited his testing of the new car now running without sponsorship (instead replaced with the now infamous map of the world.) It would also be a very difficult season for Button for his image in the British media, with Lewis Hamilton bursting onto the scene, Button would be cast further and further into the shadows. The car he was given for 2007 didnt help boost his popularity, it was a right stinker of a car in which he scored a measly 6 points. Things didnt get much better in 2008 as for the first time, he would be outscored by Barrichello by 11 points to Button's 3. The car was an improvement, but it was still poor. Barrichello's cause was helped greatly with a fantastic and popular podium finish at Silverstone. It was a dreadful season by Button's standards despite qualifying extremely well on more than one occasion.

But now Button could be hounded out of Formula 1 altogether, Honda made the shock announcement in December 2008 that they were pulling out of the sport and would shut down the team if a new buyer could'nt be found, if that were the case, Jenson Button would int he space of 2 years go from the darling of British Motorsport to the top of the Grand Prix scrapheap.