The 2009 Formula 1 season is the stuff of legend, and it certainly made one of Button. Time to look back at how it happened. This interview first appeared in the January 2023 issue of Octane, ahead of Button’s Le Mans outings in 2023 and ’24.
Things didn’t look good for Jenson Button as the 2009 Formula 1 season approached. The previous year had been a disaster – sixth place in Spain being the best he could drag out of Honda’s recalcitrant RA108 – and it got even worse in the December, when the Japanese manufacturer announced that it would be withdrawing with immediate effect. Hundreds of jobs were at risk at the Brackley factory, and not until early March was it announced that team principal Ross Brawn had secured the team’s future by leading a management buy-out.
Seven months later, Button was crowned World Champion and Brawn GP clinched the Constructors’ title. It was an achievement to rank with the greatest sporting upsets, and it’s little wonder that Button is currently working with movie star Keanu Reeves on a documentary about that fairy-tale season.
The development programme for the car that would become the Brawn BGP 001 had started early in 2008. With new regulations coming in for 2009, that head start paid dividends – in particular thanks to the adoption of a clever ‘double diffuser’ set-up – but the design was compromised by the late switch to a customer Mercedes engine rather than the intended Honda. The car first turned a wheel at Silverstone, and how it performed was not uppermost in Button’s mind.
‘The important thing was that we were actually there,’ he recalls. ‘We didn’t even think we’d be racing and most of the factory thought they’d be made redundant at the end of 2008. When the engine started, there was a big round of applause, a lot of excitement just to be going racing. The big thing was that there weren’t any issues. You normally have issues at the start of a test, especially when everything’s been rushed together, but at that point you don’t know how competitive the car is going to be.’
The answer to that was ‘very’. The wind-tunnel figures suggested that the BGP 001 had similar levels of downforce to the 2008 Honda. In theory, that put them ahead of the other teams, which had lost downforce over the winter due to the new regulations. The uncertainty came from the fact that their 2008 car wasn’t the most promising reference point, but confirmation of the Brawn’s pace came when Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished first and second in Australia.
‘Even though we were quick in testing, you still go to a completely different circuit like Melbourne and you don’t really know how the car’s going to perform. Qualifying was great and then we knew going into the race that we were going to be quick, but we hadn’t really done any start practice, we hadn’t done any pit-stop practice, we hadn’t done anything. It was all a bit unknown.
‘I had a great start but the pit stops, I think, were 12 seconds long. We lost a hell of a lot of time to our competitors. The main fuel guy had left to become a plumber because he didn’t think the team would be continuing, so we had someone else that we had to train up. It was so late in the day, poor guy. After that first race, they got the old fuel guy back part-time.’
Button won again in Malaysia then, after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had won in China, claimed four consecutive victories in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey.
Endurance racing holds a fascination for him and there’s talk of Le Mans
‘The thing people forget is that we weren’t entirely dominant. We weren’t qualifying on pole by a second and streaking away with a race. In Bahrain, I was fourth on the grid but made some good moves, good strategy calls by the team, and we came through and won. People will look back now and probably think, “Oh, that was a walk in the park.” It wasn’t – not when you compare it to a lot of the Mercedes years or Red Bull this year!’
The second half of the season certainly wasn’t. After winning six out of the first seven races, Button didn’t win any of the remaining ten. ‘The race where the car was at its best was actually Turkey, where I came on the radio and said “You’ve built me a monster. Thank you, guys.” Straight after that was the British Grand Prix, which was a massive nosedive. That was a difficult one to swallow, going from such an amazing race, where I felt I had the best car I’d ever driven underneath me, to qualifying and finishing sixth. That was a shock – the car just wasn’t working as well [and] a lot of people had caught up already with their downforce package.’
From Silverstone onwards, Red Bull generally had the fastest car, McLaren was making major gains and Barrichello was increasingly strong – the Brazilian won in both Italy and Valencia. As for Button, it seemed at times as though the title was slipping from his grasp.
‘I remember driving in after qualifying in Singapore and saying, “Guys, we’re throwing away this championship.” I remember that very clearly. The one that was really tough was Valencia because Rubens won and I finished seventh. It was a terrible weekend, so that was mentally very, very tough. I don’t mind saying that, mentally, I wasn’t strong enough at times. I put so much pressure on myself to succeed because I knew that in 2010 the team didn’t have the funds to be that competitive again. I knew ’09 was the year to win, so I put a hell of a lot of pressure on myself.’
Button and Barrichello always got on well, but going head-to-head with a World Championship on the line put a different complexion on things.
‘There were times when I’d think Rubens thought that I was possibly being helped by strategy calls, which wasn’t the case. Barcelona was one of them. The best strategy in all the simulations was to do a three-stop. I started on pole and he started third, but he got the tow on me down to turn one and overtook. He stayed on three stops and I said, “I can’t overtake him – can I do a two-stop strategy?” I did it and ended up beating him, so immediately [it was], “Preferential treatment towards Jenson”. When you’re in the car and suddenly your team-mate’s in front of you, you’re like, “How did that happen?” So I get it, but it definitely wasn’t the case.
‘Apart from that, we got on really well. He was a very emotional character, bloody quick, and great at setting up a car. A really tough competitor – I couldn’t have wished for a better team-mate.’
By the time everyone arrived in Brazil for the penultimate race of the season, Button still had a healthy points lead over Barrichello and Vettel, but all the momentum seemed to be with his rivals.
‘It was a funny one, because we obviously had eyes on my team-mate, but I think we were more looking to Sebastian Vettel. I understood how quick Rubens was, but I knew what he was in – he was in the same car as me. Sebastian was an unknown quantity [and] the Red Bull was bloody quick.’
Adding to the pressure was a difficult qualifying session that was delayed due to a rainstorm. Button found himself on the wrong tyres and would line up only 14th, which was at least two places ahead of Vettel. Barrichello had taken pole position, but Button arrived on Sunday feeling positive and upbeat, and duly put in a stellar drive. He pulled off a string of decisive overtaking moves into the first corner and, with Vettel finishing only fourth and Barrichello eighth, fifth was enough to secure the title.
‘I love that feeling of fighting your way through the field. You have nothing to lose – you just give it your all. It was so much fun. We had a good car, but there were two or three teams that had better cars at that point. Definitely the Red Bulls and the McLaren, and I think Ferrari as well, so fighting my way through wasn’t easy. But it was a challenge and I absolutely loved it. There was so much support from the team – from Ross, from my engineer, Andrew Shovlin – and that made it pretty special to cross that finish line.
‘We had a party at the circuit and then we went out in the evening, but I didn’t stay long. I was too overwhelmed and went back to my hotel room and spent a couple of hours by myself just running through the season, through my career. It was weird to celebrate that way, but it just felt right.’
For Brawn GP, it was a case of ‘one and done’. Later that year, Mercedes bought a majority shareholding and renamed the team for 2010, while Button left to join McLaren. He remained there for the rest of his career before retiring from full-time racing at the end of 2016. As he was always one of the more engaging personalities on the grid, it’s no surprise that he joined the Sky Sports F1 team and keeps busy in his role as ambassador for various brands. Being a Rolex Testimonee has strengthened his ties with the classic car world and, as he chats to Octane, on his wrist is a Rose Gold Daytona that belonged to his late father John. ‘Papa Smurf’ was a popular fixture in the paddock throughout Button’s career.
‘In 2013, it was his 70th birthday and twice I asked him, “Dad, come on – what do you want? I’d like to get you a watch.” He sent me a picture of this one and I remember giving it to him. Obviously it got very emotional with family there and… he basically used to wear it every day – I can see the scratches now – but then he sadly passed away the following year. I wear this watch a lot.’
It’s fared better than John’s first Rolex, which he’d paid for himself many years earlier and kept at his house in the South of France. After a couple of break-ins, he decided to hide it in the washing machine – only to forget it was there and put it through a wash cycle. It apparently survived the ordeal largely unscathed and slightly cleaner.
Button has to pick and choose his race outings now that he has a young family, but in 2021 he made his first appearance at the Goodwood Revival after years of being asked by the Duke of Richmond. Having ‘got the bug’, he was back again in 2022 and played a starring role in the RAC TT Celebration race, driving Adrian Newey’s E-type alongside Adrian’s son Harrison – and setting a blistering lap record along the way.
‘Having raced against Adrian for so many years, to finally drive a car that he’s been involved with was pretty awesome. Now I see why his drivers are always so happy and so quick! It’s an amazing bit of kit. I need a car that gives me confidence. If I feel confident, I get the best out of myself. It was a shame we had a gearbox failure and didn’t finish, but we showed our pace and had a great time.’
Button is looking forward to more outings in Historics, and he revelled in recent visits to Daytona and Le Mans with Rolex. Endurance racing holds a particular fascination for him and there’s even talk of a Le Mans programme.
‘I love that camaraderie within the team,’ he says. ‘The drivers actually work together for the good of the car rather than just themselves. I would love to do Le Mans in the right atmosphere in the right team. I obviously want to win, but I want it to be a fun experience.’
While victory at La Sarthe would be a significant addition to an already glittering CV, nothing will ever top that Sunday afternoon in Brazil, when he joyfully sang We Are The Champions! over the radio and Ross Brawn quietly shook his head on the pit wall, seemingly unable to believe what had just happened.
