By Phil Huff
August 24 2006

Predictably booked for the Thursday press conference in Turkey, Jenson Button, winner of the previous race in Hungary, chatted about the win, the holiday, the future, and the demise of Jacques Villeneuve as an F1 pilot, amongst other things. Here's what he had to say. Jenson, coming after the great victory in Hungary, have you enjoyed the last three weeks, thinking about it?

Yes, very much so. I won the race and it was a very emotional moment, but I was rushed off because I had to get a flight to China and also to Tokyo, Japan. But after that I got home and saw all my family and friends. I don't see them that often and on such a special occasion it was a great event and I spent the whole night chatting to everyone. That's when it really hits home when you see everyone's feelings and emotions towards you and the race. It was a very nice feeling.

Coming to this race do you feel that the pressure is off you? Are you a different driver in some ways?

No, not a different driver but there is definitely less pressure. There has always been that itch I can't scratch and I think more in the media's eyes than mine, after the amount of races I've competed in and not won in Formula One. Now that isn't a concern I have anymore and I've enjoyed the win and we need to move on now, to work with the car and get a car that is quick enough to challenge for wins in the dry as well. We haven't arrived here with a car that is as quick as any others and we still have a lot of work to do to challenge the McLarens, the Renaults and the Ferraris. Hopefully we'll be a bit closer here.

Thirteenth to fifth here last year and seven drivers have followed up their debut win with a second win, including two British world champions Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill, so what are your feelings about this race?

As I said I don't think our car is as quick as the top three teams at the moment, but we're getting closer and that is our aim. I love this circuit, it's a circuit I went well at last year. Qualifying was a bit of a pain as I grounded out round Turn Eight and went off the circuit, but the pace of the car was very good and we could have had a better result if we'd started further up the grid. So I'm looking forward to it, but we'll have to see what our pace is like compared to the top teams.

What did you do during the holidays?

I went to Shanghai for two days and then to Japan which was lot of fun. I then flew back to Paris as I couldn't go back to Heathrow. I got the train back to London which was nice! And then I went to Ibiza for 12 days with friends and a couple of family members.

Clubbing…?

I was relaxing, there is more to Ibiza, it's a beautiful island. It was really nice to relax with my friends and let it sink in and to get some sun and just do nothing for a few days.

Did you have a chance to see a replay of the race, maybe going through it again, and maybe analysing all the crazy things that happened in the race?

Yeah, you know I always used to watch my races until this year and this was the first one I've watched, because this has been a pretty poor season up until Hungary. I've watched the race many times and it's always nice to see.

You know Jacques Villeneuve very well. Could you maybe reflect a little bit on his F1 career and also on his very abrupt departure?

I don't know Jacques anywhere near as well as DC does but I just hope people remember him for what he achieved because he was World Champion, and nobody can take that away from him. I know the last few years for him haven't been what he would have liked but he achieved something which so many drivers haven't.

Between Michael and Fernando, who do you think will be World Champion and why?

I think a lot of it does come down to the tyres, if the reliability of the cars is good, I think it does come down to the tyre manufacturers which is obviously still very very exciting.

What's the one thing you will remember about the last race and what would you remember about the previous 113 races?

Winning it is the thing I remember from the last race. Previous races? I think disappointment. We lost a lot of ground from the start of the season. A lot of other teams progressed and we did not. Disappointment in the results we were getting but we've made a step forward now, I don't mean the win, I mean with the car, previous to Hockenheim and it's promising. It's nice to see that we can make big steps forward like other people have been doing this season and we are becoming more competitive again which is nice. It shows that we have it within the team. If things aren't going well, we're very good at finding the reasons for it and putting things right.

Can I have your comments on the FIA decision from yesterday concerning the mass dampers? How you will suffer, how much it doesn't bother you?

It's whether it makes a big difference to the teams that can't use it. You always hear different figures: some say two tenths, some say five tenths and also it's different on different circuits. It's difficult to know what difference it makes but we haven't used it so it doesn't really change our position, except we might be more competitive compared to the teams that have it. I don't know the teams that have been using it apart from Renault.