Jenson Button MBE, or ‘JB’ as he’s known on Planet F1, did not have a job in the winter of 2008. A year later he was world champion, having won six of the first seven races of the 2009 season. His team, Brawn GP, won the constructors’ title in its first and only year in the sport. You simply could not make this up, a momentous and unique achievement that’s a chapter of its own in motor racing history.
The boy from Frome, who began as a kart racer for fun, is now ‘retired’, living in Los Angeles and busier than he’s ever been. A quick summary of what keeps this man busy includes JBXE, his Extreme E team, Nitro Rallycross in the USA, the renaissance of Radford cars, Team Rocket with ambitions of a Le Mans car, Sky TV punditry and a newly discovered love of racing historic cars. He’s a hard man to pin down but Motor Sport caught up with him between transatlantic flights, ‘Button International Inc’ business meetings and grands prix on Sky. The topics, as you might expect, are many and varied.
Motor Sport: Like so many F1 drivers you honed your skills in karting and your father spent a lot of time developing your talent.
“Yes, he did. He was such a great ‘racing dad’ because he was never pushy, not forceful at all. I felt lucky that I was going kart racing in the first place. I mean I was just this kid from Frome in Somerset and I never thought I’d have this opportunity. I always enjoyed it but then as a teenager I was changing a lot mentally, going through all the stuff you do at that time. I really
