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.
Karting career
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, His father sold most of his possessions and opened a shop to fund his son's karting career. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship and the title with team Wright Karts. 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 became the youngest driver and first Briton to claim the European Super A Championship. 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.
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. 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.
Formula One career
Williams (2000)
thumb|left|upright|Button's [[Williams FW22 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.
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. 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. 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)
thumb|right|Button at the driving for [[Benetton Formula|Benetton.]]
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 . Briatore believed Button's inexperience showed as he struggled to help his team set up a competitive car.
Renault (2002)
thumb|left|Button competing for [[Renault in Formula One|Renault 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, In late 2001, Briatore invited Button to spend ten days at a ranch in Kenya, 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. He finished the season seventh with fourteen points.
BAR/Honda/Brawn (2003–2009)
BAR (2003–2005)
2003
Button faced early hostility from new teammate Villeneuve, who said Button "should be in a boy band" and was not on speaking terms with him. Their relationship did not improve after the first race in Australia: Villeneuve was due to pit, but stayed out an extra lap and made a pit stop when Button was due in, leaving Button waiting in the pit lane while Villeneuve's car was serviced. Villeneuve blamed it on "radio problems", but both Button and Richards hinted that they did not believe him. Button scored eight points in the first six races, including a fourth place at the . His relationship with Villeneuve improved thereafter because of his better performance and said the comments were caused by inter-team changes. A high speed crash for Button during Saturday qualifying in Monaco briefly knocked him unconscious, and he was detained in hospital overnight. Despite the accident Button still wanted to race, but was withdrawn by his team on medical advice. He was cleared to race for the following Grand Prix in Montreal. Button continued to outperform his teammate and this helped rebuild his previously faltering reputation. Just before the final race in Japan, Villeneuve lost his seat at BAR, so Button was partnered with Takuma Sato; he took his second fourth place of the season, and finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with seventeen points. He took his first podium in the second race of the year—third-place at the . He followed it up two weeks later with another third-place in Bahrain. In the next race at Imola, he took his first pole position and finished second behind Michael Schumacher. He took ten podiums in eighteen races, and scored no points in three. The dispute went to F1's Contract Recognition Board, who ruled in favour of BAR on 20 October, forcing Button to stay with the team. He asked his friend Richard Goodard to manage him, and employed a personal assistant in restructuring his organisation.
2005
thumb|right|Button at the , where he took [[pole position.]]
Despite the feud, Button insisted he had BAR's backing, and was optimistic for the season. He was unable to deal with regulation changes concerning aerodynamics and his car lacked pace as a result. Button was disqualified from third place at the after race scrutineers found his car had a second fuel tank inside the main one, that when drained, made his car underweight. The FIA International Court of Appeal banned Button and his team from the next two races as a result. Following his return, he took the second pole position of his career in Montreal, but crashed out after an error while running third. After the , Button scored in all of the remaining races with two third-place finishes in Germany and Belgium to end the season in ninth place on 37 points. Frank Williams insisted the contract was fully binding, and that there would be "absolutely no turning back"; his team required Button to fulfill some contractual obligations with sponsors. After several weeks of talks, Williams agreed to release Button in exchange for an estimated £18 million in compensation.
Honda (2006–2008)
2006
thumb|right|Button driving the [[Honda RA106 which he drove to victory at the .]]
BAR was renamed Honda prior to 2006 following a buyout by the Japanese manufacturer and Button was partnered by the experienced Rubens Barrichello. The new team performed well in testing, helped by the extra resources now available from Honda, and Button was confident in the car. He had been frustrated by not converting his increasing experience and confidence in his driving into success in 2005 and was excited about Honda's car and engine development enabling race victory challenges. Button scored points in five of the first eleven races, finishing third at the second round, the , and pole position for the following . The first win of his career was at a rain-affected from a fourteenth position start – the 113th Grand Prix start of his career. Button finished fourth or fifth at each of the next five races and ended the season with a podium finish at the final round in Brazil. Over the last six races of the season, he scored more points (35) than any other driver.
2007
thumb|left|Button driving for [[Honda in Formula One|Honda at the .]]
In , Button again drove with Honda alongside Barrichello. He was unable to partake in pre-season testing because of two hairline fractures to his ribs, sustained in a karting incident in late 2006. His Honda RA107 car had an aerodynamic imbalance from lacking grip after Shuhei Nakamoto was appointed Senior Technical Director following the departure of Geoff Willis. His year was worse than in 2006, driving within the middle of the field and usually qualifying outside of the top ten. He scored six points over the course of the season for fifteenth overall with a best finish of fifth at the rain-affected . He was informed of the news by Goodard the day before and Button changed his plans to discuss the withdrawal with colleagues and not the performance of his 2009 car. He declined an offer to drive for Red Bull Racing's junior team Toro Rosso because they would not give him a podium-winning car and they wanted sponsorship funding.
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.
thumb|left|The [[Brawn BGP 001 car that Button drove to win the championship]]
Button won six of the first seven races with four pole positions, 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.
thumb|Button at the [[2009 Italian Grand Prix]]
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)
thumb|right|Button's first race for [[McLaren was the .]]
Goodard telephoned McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh to enquire about a drive for Button.