Button on top of the world

On the evening after the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, Jenson Button was celebrating in the Double Happiness Bar in downtown Melbourne. The two cars in his Button Racing F1 team had come first and second in the Australian Grand Prix and he had invited a small group of admirers to have some champagne with him in a trendy location. The team had enjoyed a perfect weekend: pole position on Saturday, first and second on Sunday and fastest lap of the Grand Prix. Surrounded by adoring female fans – each of whom his wife, Jessica, deftly kept at least an arm’s length away from Jenson – and having his team’s name shouted all over Melbourne, Jenson was deliriously happy.

On the evening after the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, Jenson Button was celebrating in the Double Happiness bar in downtown Melbourne. The two cars in his Button Racing F1 team had come first and second in the Australian Grand Prix and he had invited a small group of admirers to have some champagne with him in a trendy location. The team had enjoyed a perfect weekend: pole position on Saturday, first and second on Sunday and fastest lap of the Grand Prix. Surrounded by adoring female fans – each of whom his wife, Jessica, deftly kept at least an arm’s length away from Jenson – and having his team’s name being shouted all over Melbourne, Jenson was deliriously happy.

As he ordered another Jeroboam of vintage Veuve Clicquot, Jenson’s mind went back to the beginning of his run of good fortune: March 2012. After two seasons of embarrassing inferiority to the Red Bull team, in the MP4-27 McLaren had produced their best car since the championship winning one of 2008. So superior was the MP4-27 that Jenson and his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, were at least a second faster than anybody else. Hamilton had qualified a fraction of a second ahead of Button and placed his car on pole position, but on race day he had surprisingly lost his nerve and been beaten to the first corner in an adroit overtaking manoeuvre by Button. The imperiousness of Button’s performance throughout the remainder of the race had underlined his mental superiority over Hamilton. As he took the chequered flag to win the 2012 Australian Grand Prix – a performance which he knew was easily his greatest triumph since first being granted a super licence to drive Formula One cars – Button knew in his heart of hearts that he would be unbeatable to the driver’s world championship at the end of that year.

A third world championship followed for Button at the end of 2014 and he chose to take that as his cue to retire from driving. That was also the year in which he made an honest woman of Jessica Michibata in Tokyo followed by a grand reception at the Four Seasons Marunouchi hotel. A son and a daughter, John and Juliet, had followed soon thereafter.

The decision to set up a new Formula One team in 2016 had been met by some criticism but Jenson was quick to remind any doubters that his first world championship in 2009 had been made achieved in the Brawn GP Racing team; a team set up a fortnight before the start of that year’s F1 season. Button GP Racing had arrived on the scene at the beginning of the decline of Ferrari and McLaren and been a monumental force to reckon. Along with being the proud owner of several constructors’ championship trophies, Jenson Button was now also a fabulously wealthy man.

Hamilton had looked quite put out at the end of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, and there was no mistaking his sullen look, but nobody could have predicted at the time that being so convincingly defeated by his team-mate in that race would so discombobulate Lewis Hamilton that his career was ruined. Whereas Button went on to spend two further happy years at McLaren, 2012 was Hamilton’s last year in Formula One.

Jenson sometimes bumped into his old team-mate in the streets of Monte Carlo but whatever conversations that took place between them were rushed and awkward. Hamilton would often be in the company of his corpulent wife, Nicole, who could not hide her envy of Jenson or, worse, Jessica. Once after one such strained occurrence, Jenson overheard Nicole speaking to Lewis with greater volume than required by discretion and heard the words “they think they are so f***ing special. They make me sick!” Jenson felt sorry for his old friend and had even offered to help if required (“Lewis, if you ever need anything, you know you only have to say the word, mate”) but this had been ignored. Hamilton was too proud.

Over at Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali seemed to have received a visit from the Succubus. As if from nowhere, his enthusiasm for the racing team and his ability to give it direction had escaped him. Directionless and uncertain of what it was they were trying to achieve, the Ferrari mechanics in Maranello had produced such a dog of a car that the prancing horse logo could well have been depicting as a decapitated beast.

Fernando Alonso had started the 2012 season hoping to win a third world championship and his first for Ferrari but the car was just too awful for words.

Ferrari never recovered after that. Now the team had only its good memories to look back upon. But all had not been lost for fans of motor racing; the waning of Ferrari coincided with the waxing of Button Racing.

More good times lay ahead, but on the 13 March 2022 it was all smiles for Jenson Button and his admirers in the Double Happiness bar.

Gitau

19 March 2012

As he ordered another Jeroboam of vintage Veuve Clicquot, Jenson’s mind went back to the beginning of his run of good fortune: March 2012. After two seasons of embarrassing inferiority to the Red Bull team, in the MP4-27 McLaren had produced their best car since the championship winning one of 2008. So superior was the MP4-27 that Jenson and his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, were at least a second faster than anybody else. Hamilton had qualified a fraction of a second ahead of Button and placed his car on pole position; but on race day he had surprisingly lost his nerve and been beaten to the first corner in an adroit overtaking manoeuvre by Button. The imperiousness of Button’s performance throughout the remainder of the race had underlined his mental superiority over Hamilton. As he took the chequered flag to win the 2012 Australian Grand Prix – a performance which he knew was easily his greatest triumph since first being granted a super licence to drive Formula One cars – Button knew in his heart of hearts that he would be unbeatable to the driver’s world championship at the end of that year.

A third world championship followed for Button at the end of 2014 and he chose to take that as his cue to retire from driving. That was also the year in which he made an honest woman of Jessica Michibata in Tokyo followed by a grand reception at the Four Seasons Marunouchi Hotel. A son and a daughter, John and Juliet, followed soon thereafter.

The decision to set up a new Formula One team in 2016 had been met by some criticism, but Jenson was quick to remind any doubters that his first world championship in 2009 had been achieved in the Brawn GP Racing team; a team set up a fortnight before the start of that year’s F1 season. Button GP Racing had arrived on the scene at the beginning of the decline of Ferrari, and McLaren and been a monumental force to reckon with. The team owed its existence to wealthy friends of John Button, Jenson's indefatigable father, who saw it as a sensible investment. The team's success was a good tribute to their faith: they were never let down.

Now, along with being the proud owner of several constructors’ championship trophies, Jenson Button was also a fabulously wealthy man.

Hamilton had looked quite put out at the end of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, and there was no mistaking his sullen look, but nobody could have predicted at the time that being so convincingly defeated by his team-mate in that race would so discombobulate Lewis Hamilton that his career would be ruined. Whereas Button went on to spend two further happy years at McLaren, 2012 was Hamilton’s last year in Formula One.

Jenson sometimes bumped into his old team-mate in the streets of Monte Carlo, but whatever conversations that took place between them were rushed and awkward. Hamilton would often be in the company of his corpulent, irascible wife, Nicole, who could not hide her envy of Jenson or, worse, Jessica. Once, after one such strained occurrence, Jenson overheard Nicole speaking to Lewis with greater volume than was required by discretion and heard the words “they think they are so f***ing special. They make me sick!” Jenson felt sorry for his old friend and had even offered to help if required (“Lewis, if you ever need anything, you know you only have to say the word, mate”) but this had been ignored. Hamilton was too proud.

Over at Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali seemed to have received a visit from the Succubus. Events like that have been known to drive lesser men to insanity. It did the poor fellow no good at all.

As if from nowhere, Domenicali's enthusiasm for the Ferrari racing team and his ability to give it direction escaped him. He moved about the factory and observed testing at Fiorano with increasing listlessness. Directionless and uncertain of what it was they were trying to achieve, the Ferrari mechanics in Maranello produced such a dog of a car in 2012 that the prancing horse logo could just as well have been depicted as a decapitated beast. Fernando Alonso had started the 2012 season hoping to win a third world championship and his first for Ferrari, but the car was just too awful for words.

Ferrari never recovered after that. Now, the team had only its good memories to look back upon. But all had not been lost for fans of motor racing; the waning of Ferrari had coincided with the waxing of Button Racing.

More good times lay ahead, but on the 13 March 2022 it was all smiles for Jenson Button and his admirers in the Double Happiness Bar.

Gitau

19 March 2012