Great footage of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button arriving for the opening of McLaren London!
• Button the victim of attempted armed robbery in Brazil last year
• McLaren driver looking to finish runner-up in the final standings
Jenson Button, the victim of an attempted armed robbery on his last visit to Brazil a year ago, has defended São Paulo’s place on the Formula One schedule.
Button, who won his 2009 world title at the creaky but evocative Interlagos circuit, said as he prepared for the final race of the season: “I love the race. It’s a great circuit, one of the oldie goldies. It hasn’t changed since I’ve been in Formula One. And that’s the sort of circuit we love. So I love the fact that’s it’s on the calendar and I hope that it stays there. They’re so passionate. And there’s so much history.”
But a rich westerner is always likely to become the target of a hold-up, or assalto, on the streets of this vast city and Button’s experience in 2010 was harrowing.
The reigning world champion at the time, he had just left the track with his father, personal trainer and manager when his reinforced Mercedes was approached by robbers carrying machine guns and baseball bats.
The police-trained driver – described as a “legend” by Button – used his avoidance skills to force his way through traffic to safety.
But on Wednesday night Button will host his traditional dinner-party in the city and he said: “Something was going to happen. It happened so many times with mechanics and the engineers. In the end it was going to happen to a driver. But I don’t think they wanted anything except for our bags out of the boot.
“We have more security this year. I think every driver this year will have a police escort in Brazil. And they should do. But you’ve also got to spare a thought for everyone else in Formula One because they don’t have police escorts.
“It’s a pity that things do happen. But I think that just shows the divide in Brazil. It’s a pity because it’s such a special race.”
In the end, all Button lost in São Paulo was his world championship. The previous year he had looked a forlorn figure when he qualified 14th, with his team-mate and championship rival Rubens Barrichello on pole.
But the following day he battled to fifth place and the world championship he had been chasing all his career. He said: “I’d love to fight Lewis for the win there [the McLaren drivers have each won three races this season].
“Lewis feels the same. We both won our world championships here. We’ll have a good scrap, hopefully. But I don’t think we’ll be the only people in that scrap. “Seb’s [Vettel] going to be out to prove that he can win again and Felipe’s [Massa] is going to be strong in his home race. He always is. Fernando’s [Alonso] going to be strong as he was in the last race. And Mark [Webber] will want to have a good weekend.
“I’d love to win in Brazil. But whatever happens I’ll still feel very positive about what’s happened this year.” His third place in the last race in Abu Dhabi ensured that he would become the first McLaren driver to finish ahead of Hamilton over a season. Now he wants to make sure he is runner-up to the world champion, Vettel. Only Alonso, 10 points behind, and Webber (22) can catch him.
First, Button will be looking to improve on his qualifying performances at the circuit. “Last year I qualified 13th and that was my best qualifying for five years,” he said.
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‘I joined McLaren because I really wanted to find out where I stand compared to Lewis’
Jenson’s Button’s sense of irritation was palpable. He had just produced another fine performance to confirm his status as the second-best driver in Formula One this season when someone asked him yet another question about his McLaren team-mate, Lewis Hamilton.
“If you want to do an interview with me, about me, that’s fine,” he said. “But I don’t want to be asked about other drivers.”
Button takes justifiable pride in the fact that his second-place position in the table behind Sebastian Vettel puts him ahead of a clearly superior car, the Red Bull of Mark Webber, as well as three former world champions – Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Hamilton.
His second‑place finish in the inaugural and highly successful Indian Grand Prix on Sunday was his 10th podium of the season (Hamilton has six, Alonso nine). On a wide track with slow corners and two DRS zones, he was not entitled to hold off Webber’s charges but he did so with considerable pace and skill.
It is Button’s misfortune, however, that whenever Hamilton drives brilliantly and wins, he is asked about him, and whenever Hamilton is involved in spectacular mishaps (more common this season) he is asked about that too, instead of the serenity of his own driving.
Ultimately, though, Button not only talked about Hamilton – who limped home in seventh place on Sunday after another collision with Felipe Massa – but admitted, for the first time, how much he wants to beat him in this year’s drivers’ championship.
With two races to go, Button is 38 points ahead of Hamilton, who does not have a realistic chance of catching him. That would represent Hamilton’s first defeat by a McLaren team-mate.
“If you have a team-mate like Lewis, who is bloody quick, it means a lot when you can finish in front of him, yes. He is also another world champion, so he is no slouch.
“We all want to beat our team-mate whatever we say, that is the way it is. You have the same equipment. You want to work with your team-mate, or you won’t have a quick enough car to fight the top guys. So you work well with him out of the car and in the car; of course, you want to beat him and it is a real challenge to beat him but that is the challenge I wanted when I came here. I wanted to find out where I really stand compared to Lewis.”
Button, remember, was advised not to join McLaren by people who thought he would struggle to compete with the 2008 world champion. Button said: “I have had better races than Lewis in the second half of the season but he has had phenomenal races when I have not been able to touch him.
“Sometimes you find yourself in the right place at the right time and at the moment, more often than not, I feel I am in a great position for the race. To finish second in the championship would mean something. It would mean I had beaten a Red Bull and Fernando in a Ferrari. When Fernando is in tune with his car it is great to beat him, as he is superfast, and my team-mate is unbelievably quick as well.”
However, Button said he would take another win ahead of finishing second in the championship. “It would be nice to finish in front of Lewis but if I can get another win that would mean so much more to me.
“I have three already and I would like to get another in Abu Dhabi or Brazil. Brazil is the one we have more of a chance to win. But quite a few times this year, especially in the last few races, I have been the closest guy to Sebastian when he has won.”
Someone then asked him yet another question about Hamilton. “Lewis will be strong next year,” he said. “Sometimes you wish he wasn’t that quick but it is competitive. He will definitely be there next year, no doubt, and we will have good fights and you will have two Brits fighting it out for the championship.”
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Oct 312011
FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton delighted the crowd at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2011, by taking the wheel of the stunning new McLaren MP4-12C GT3 as it made its world dynamic debut on the famous Goodwood hill.
Ex F1 driver Riccardo Patrese takes his wife round Jerez circuit in a Honda Civic Type-R… a little too quickly! Hilarious!!
Oct 132011
McLaren’s Jenson Button believes that despite being quickest in practice in Japan, there are areas of the car’s performance that “need improvement” if they are to challenge the race pace of Red Bull. The 31-year-old Briton is second in the driver standings and is the only person who can prevent Sebastian Vettel from becoming the youngest back-to-back world champion, although the German needs only one point from the season’s remaining five races to win the title.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Jenson drives the MP4-23 Formula 1 car and does some doughnuts and burnouts through Deansgate in Manchester. It won’t go in gear and he has to get out and walk at around 1:20 Sorry about the shakeyness.
Oct 052011
• Driver pledges future to British-based Formula One team
• ‘I’ve never felt more at home at a team than I do here’
Jenson Button has pledged his future to McLaren by agreeing a new “multi-year contract” with the British-based Formula One team.
The 2009 world champion joined McLaren at the start of the 2010 season, recording two wins on the way to finishing fifth in the championship.
This season the 31-year-old has enjoyed the upper hand on his team-mate Lewis Hamilton and lies second in the drivers’ championship behind the seemingly impregnable Sebastian Vettel with five races remaining.
The team said in a statement: “Jenson’s re-signing is a move that will strengthen Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’s long-term stability as it continues to grow and develop its race-winning form into further world championship successes.”
Button, who famously won the 2009 title with Brawn GP after ending 2008 with his F1 career in tatters following the withdrawal of Honda, said he was delighted to commit his future to the team.
“I’ve never felt more at home at a team than I do at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes,” said Button. “I’ve won four of the greatest races of my life here, I’m currently lying second in the drivers’ world championship, and I feel that I’m driving better than ever.
“You can only achieve that with the right level of support – and I truly believe that the passion and determination to win are stronger here at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes than anywhere else.
“As a grand prix driver, those are incredibly powerful feelings to share and be part of, and they’ve only reinforced my desire to commit my long-term future to this team.
“I’ve made no secret of my ambition to continue winning races and world championships, and I fully believe this is the place where I can achieve those aims.”
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Aug 162011
This is a tribute of one of my favorites F1 Drivers,Jenson Btton
• ‘We are not about to compromise our values’
• F1 teams unhappy about provisional 2012 calendar
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will continue battling each other on the track this season, even though it could hamper their respective title chances.
The battle between the two McLaren drivers was a highlight of the race at the Hungaroring on Sunday, with the pair passing each other for the lead four times within five laps.
As opposed to the team orders most recently employed by Red Bull in the British Grand Prix, when Mark Webber was told to hold position behind the championship leader, Sebastian Vettel, McLaren have confirmed that the two Britons will be allowed to go for it, despite the potential of putting each other out. That happened when they clashed in Montreal, ending Hamilton’s race.
“We are not about to compromise our values and what we believe with our racing at McLaren,” Jonathan Neale, the team’s managing director, said. “When we were in Canada we let them get on with it and they had a coming together. It’s risky but when you have back-to-back world champs you have to respect they are the ones there in the moment.”
Button had revelled, not only in the racing but in the confidence specifically that going up against his team-mate gave him on track. “You don’t think about [fighting each other], you are thinking about position,” he said. “We had a good little scrap and were wheel-to-wheel through turn one, which was close. If it had been with other drivers, I would have been off the circuit.”
The fight, he insisted, was not between the two of them but for the title as they bid to catch Vettel, who is 88 points ahead of Hamilton in third and 100 ahead of the fifth-placed Button.
“We have won world championships so we are not interested in being second. We want to be top. I wouldn’t race this season just wanting to beat my team-mate – I am not aiming for Lewis, I am aiming for the top.”
It is, as Neale noted, part of McLaren’s historical ethos to let their drivers race. “Everybody has to run their team by their rules but if you look back through our history, the way that we go about racing is having good drivers, give them a good car and let them do what they do best.” But he admitted it had been “stressful on the pit wall – the mechanics in the garage were looking at it and wincing”.
Neale said: “Sometimes we get it wrong. But when you have a race like that, you know you are right. They were banging wheels from the first lap.”
His position is admirable but with Red Bull having already proved that they will employ team orders, it makes the task of catching Vettel in the remaining nine races that much harder.
Button is not giving up. “If you look at the table you say no chance, but if I take it race by race, like I did here, go out and have fun and try to win, it can happen. We want to see a lot more 25s [points for the winner].”
Off-track, hard details about the new Sky/BBC TV deal remained unclear as the teams headed off for their summer break. The McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, admitted that there was “some concern about the free‑to‑air nature of it”. He said: “We received some assurances [on Friday] when we saw Bernie [Ecclestone]. I hope that that’s what happens.”
However, when told that Ecclestone had subsequently said theBBC would show only highlights of races it will not air live, rather than deferred coverage, he admitted the specificsof the deal appeared to still be in Ecclestone’s hands. “What I said was wholly accurate [on Friday] in that this is what we were told and we asked several times. But we’ll have to get the full story.”
Queried about whether there was concern over the potential decrease in revenue from sponsors, Whitmarsh insisted it did not apply to McLaren’s partners. “I don’t think there is any here. I would think that’s just speculation. I think we have got to do a careful analysis of it, the view [on Friday] was that viewership would increase as a consequence of the amount of time and coverage that Formula One will present.”
The teams are also pressing for a rethink on the 2012 provisional calendar that was presented to them by Ecclestone at the weekend. Of particular concern seems to be a final section that sees seven races in 10 weekends across four continents. The Renault team principal, Eric Boullier, said: “We plan actually to ask for a rethink for the logistics. We have a thought between us already and we would like to suggest a couple of ideas.”
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