The Young Drivers: No.2 - Jenson Button

Where were they then?

Jenson Button was already big news when he stepped up from karting to car racing in Formula Ford for the 1998 season. The 18-year-old justified the hype by winning the UK title at the Silverstone season final and claiming victory in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival.

Despite being one of the least experience drivers in the final selection, Button oozed class at the driver evaluations and became the tenth winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.

This is what Autosport magazine wrote about Button at the time.

On the biggest night of his racing life, his demeanour suggested it was business as usual for Jenson Button. He had been announced as the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of 1998, but there was no sign of an emotional overflow.

The 18-year-old has one of the coolest attitudes in motor racing. He is rarely seen to get excited, despite a scintillating first year of racing cars. On this occasion, the calm exterior just so happened to be a front. Button admitted the last few days had been hell.

"I was more nervous about the award than I was all season" he said. "I can't stand losing, and there's nothing you can do about this competition.

"You don't know what's happening, and they don't give anything away. It's been frustrating."

The frustration was over, and the British Formula Ford champion and Festival winner was ready to have some fun at the Hard Rock Cafe, the traditional retreat for all new McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Drivers.

Jenson Button tests the McLaren MP4/14 Mercedes at Silverstone © LAT

As his predecessors have found, Jenson was the man of the moment at the Grosvenor house. Everyone wanted a piece of him, and the only chance Autosport had for an interview was in a lift as he looked for his room in the hotel.

The expectations hoisted upon Button are huge, and so far he has delivered everything asked of him. Only David Coulthard has been talked about so much at such an early stage - he was the inaugural winner back in 1989. Yet Button shows a maturity beyond his years, and he is handling it the best way he knows.

"I'm aware of the hype, and it is strange," he said. "I try not to think about it and just be my normal self. The amazing thing is, I don't feel it puts me under any pressure. It's not that I don't have feelings - my nerves tonight showed that. It's just that when I'm racing, I stay relaxed and focused."

Under such an intense spotlight, Button's every move on the track has been scrutinised this year. Inevitably, with his limited experience, there are still some questions over his racing. However, 1998 showed that he is ready and willing to learn what he must do to win. It is not just about his abundance of natural ability.

His Festival win highlighted the biggest change in his outlook on racing. He won after a do-or-die move on Marcos Ambrose, and it left the Australian in the gravel. It was tough. It was ruthless. But with so much at stake it was necessary. It shook off the initial impression of a fine driver who lacked aggression.

With some valuable lessons taken on board, the next stage is Formula 3. Even if he says it does not bother him, the pressure will intensify in 1999. Not only does he have this fearsome reputation to live with, he is now officially recognised as the great hope for the future of British motor racing.

Contrary to what many people in the sport believe, the hype around him is not invention of the press. He has been the talk of the national racing paddocks all season - and with justification. It's not every day that a young driver makes such an impact so quickly. The bare evidence of this makes it clear he has what it takes to reach the pinnacle. Believe the hype.

Where are they now?

It was clear, even in his Formula Ford, days that Button was on the fast-track to Formula One. But no-one realised just how fast, for a mere 15 months after winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award the 20-year-old was making his grand prix debut for Williams-BMW.

Jenson Button (Promatecme Dallara F399 Renault) in the British F3 race at Donington Park © LAT

For 1999, Button made the step up to the British Formula 3 Championship with the Renault-supported Promatecme team and it didn't take him long to start winning there. After taking his first victory in only his third start at Thruxton, Button added late-season wins at Pembrey and Silverstone to take third in the championship behind two far more experienced F3 campaigners - Marc Hynes and future Jaguar and Prost F1 driver Luciano Burti.

But without the award - and the money it brings - Button might not even have made it to F3 for 1999.

"The award was for sure important," says Button. "It was the money more than everything else that helped my career because I was able to put it into my Formula 3 drive.

"It also gave me a bit of recognition and got my name out there."

Things moved quickly at that point. He tested for McLaren at Silverstone at the end of that season and also made a massive impression with his performance behind the wheel of a Prost-Peugeot. That brought him to the attention of Frank Williams, who was considering him for a permanent testing role, but the following January Button found himself in a shoot-out for a race drive with reigning Formula 3000 champion Bruno Junqueira. He got the drive, and the rest is history.

It was a stellar first season. Only an engine failure cost him points on his debut in the Australian Grand Prix, and he picked up his first point in the second race of the season at Interlagos. It was the first of six points finishes, but with Juan Pablo Montoya being brought back to Europe after winning a successful two years in the Champ Car World Series, Button found himself without a drive for 2001.

His sophomore year was, it's fair to say, disappointing. Driving for Benetton-Renault, he finished in the points just once and was resoundingly beaten by teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. Things were a little better the following season, with the team now fully taken over by Renault, and he outscored new teammate Jarno Trulli 14 points to eight.

With Williams committed to running Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, there was no way back to the team, and Button opted to join BAR-Honda alongside Jacques Villeneuve in 2003. He outperformed the 1997 world champion, finishing ninth in the drivers' championship, and the team opted to retain him for 2004 alongside Takuma Sato.

This was the season that Button emerged as a genuine front-runner. Although a first victory eluded him, he and BAR were the best non-Ferrari performers in the championship. Button claimed ten podium finishes in 18 races as he led BAR to a best-ever second in the constructors' championship, and hopes were high for the following season.

The team didn't live up to them. Button didn't take a points finish in the first nine grands prix (although BAR were absent from two of them after being banned for running underweight by running with a secondary fuel tank), but hit form in the second half of the year and ended up scoring a respectable 37 points.

Jenson Button wins the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix in a Honda RA106 © LAT

It was a similar story in 2006, with the team not really getting into its stride until the second half of the year. In the final eight races, Button was the highest-scoring driver, but in Hungary he had his finest hour.

Starting 14th on the grid after an engine change penalty, Button charged up the order and benefited from Fernando Alonso's retirement to take - in his 113th start - his first victory.

That win made him the second McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner to stand on top of the podium in a grand prix, and despite enduring two difficult seasons in 2007-8 with the struggling team, the 28-year-old is set for a seventh season with Honda in 2009. With Ross Brawn at the helm for a second year as team principal, hopes are high.

It's a long way from that winter day when Button took part in the award evaluations as something of an outsider for the prize.

"It wasn't so bad for me because I was one of the least experienced drivers doing it so there was no pressure on me," recalls Button. "I thoroughly enjoyed it and I loved driving the cars that I did.

"For any driver that was in my position that had only driven Formula Ford, it was great fun to drive a touring car and a Formula 3 car. A real experience."