Jenson Button

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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.

In Their Own Story

The Australian Grand Prix provided a fleeting highlight for Button and his rookie teammate Kevin Magnussen. Both drivers crossed the line third and fourth respectively, but were elevated to second and third after Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified. This result marked McLaren's last podium until the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. The cars sported a special Mobil 1 livery to honor the team's 20-year association with the brand. However, momentum evaporated quickly; in Malaysia, Button slumped to sixth while Magnussen finished ninth. Disaster struck in Bahrain when both cars retired due to clutch failures, marking a grim first double DNF for McLaren since the 2006 United States Grand Prix. Despite the MP4-29's statistical reliability throughout the rest of the season, Button and Magnussen failed to secure another podium finish.

Reader's Guide

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. 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. 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. 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. Button received the kart as a Christmas present in 1987 and he began karting at the Clay Pigeon Raceway in May 1988 aged eight. 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. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship and the title with team Wright Karts. Further successes followed, including three British Open Kart Championship wins. Button was fourth in the 1994 RAC British Junior 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. Aged eighteen,

Did You Know?

• Button won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2009 with Brawn GP.
• He won his first Grand Prix at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix after 113 races.
• Button made a one-off return at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to deputise for Fernando Alonso.
• After F1, Button became champion of the 2018 Super GT Series alongside Naoki Yamamoto.