By Karl King
December 12 2009

Jenson Button, born in Frome, Somerset, UK on 19 January 1980, is entering his eighth season in Formula 1 and his first with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

The Briton entered F1 in 2000 with the BMW.WilliamsF1 team after a very quick progression through lower formulae. His relatively unusual career path consisted of a year in British Formula Ford in 1998 after many years karting, followed by a year in British Formula 3. Button won the FF championship and came third in F3, which was enough to attract the attention of Sir Frank Williams.

Button had a fairly impressive debut season, often matching and sometimes bettering experienced teammate Ralf Schumacher. He became the youngest driver ever (at that time) to score points in an F1 race (with the old points system), but Jenson knew he was to be ousted at the end of the year due to an agreement between Williams and Juan Pablo Montoya to provide a race seat for 2001. Button was therefore loaned out to Benetton.

Thus commenced a difficult year. The relationship between Button and team boss Flavio Briatore was never brilliant: Briatore was often less than supportive and often criticised Button’s playboy lifestyle. It was a poor year for Button, he struggled with the uncompetitive Benetton and was regularly outclassed by Giancarlo Fisichella who adapted much better to the car.

2002 was somewhat better: the team was officially bought out and renamed Renault and the car was much improved. Jenson fared well against Jarno Trulli and very nearly scored his first podium at the Malaysian GP if it were not for a late car failure which allowed Michael Schumacher to pass him for the last podium position. Briatore disposed of Button in favour of his protégé Fernando Alonso, leaving the Brit with limited options for the next year.

One person who believed in Button’s abilities was Dave Richards, who signed him up for the B.A.R team he was managing. Button outshined 1997 World Champion teammate Jacques Villeneuve in a team which was very much built round the Canadian. Villeneuve was therefore to be removed for the following year and, on the news being announced, left the team before the end of the year.

His replacement was Takuma Sato who Jenson very comprehensively beat. 2004 was a great year for Button, he scored his first pole position and podiums – and many followed. He finished third in the championship, behind only the dominant Ferraris. His best chance of a win was at Monaco, but his old teammate Jarno Trulli managed to hold him off until the end around the twisty streets and thus the win eluded him.

For 2005, the performance of the BAR-Honda diminished. The BAR 007 underperformed, although it gave Button a chance to prove his worth against his teammate: he scored 37 points compared to Sato’s 1.

Honda purchased the team in 2006 and, whilst the car was not great, the first win finally came. After over 100 GPs, Button won the Hungarian GP in poor weather conditions, and ended the year on a high by scoring the most points of any driver in the last few races of the season. The optimism was there for the future. But it was misplaced.

2007’s Honda car was a dog. The MyEarthDream concept was a joke. The car looked awful. Jenson scored 6 points. It was a year to forget, but it couldn’t get worse.

Or so Jenson hoped. It seemed in possible but the RA108 was even worse. Jenson scored only 3 points in the whole year but the optimism was back: 2009 was a year of rule changes and Ross Brawn had been enticed out of his gardening leave.

But then the infamous event happened – Honda pulled the plug in December 08, the midst of the ‘credit crunch’. Out of Honda’s ashes emerged BrawnGP, the management buyout of the team and the car could race. And it was a good job it did: the BGP001 was a fantastic car, Jenson won 6 of the first 7 races and outclassed experienced teammate Rubens Barrichello to the championship.

For 2010, it continued to look good. Mercedes-Benz were set to increase their involvement in the team and Jenson looked set to stay. Then the shock news came: Button was to leave Brawn-Mercedes to partner Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. There were rumours that it was over a pay dispute, but both Ross Brawn and Martin Whitmarsh have asserted the fact that Jenson was offered a more attractive package to stay at Brawn.

So now Brawn has morphed into MercedesGP and on the day of the announcement that Michael Schumacher would drive for them, Ross Brawn said he believed Jenson left the team in order to prove himself against Hamilton and rubbish any thoughts that he had lucked into his championship.

2010 is set to be a corker of a year. Can Jenson prove his mettle against Lewis or will he find it difficult coming in on Lewis’s territory. It’s a tantalising prospect...