SAO PAULO — Jenson Button didn’t have a job in Formula One after last season. With one race to go this year, he’s already the series winner and can’t say it loud enough:
“I’m the world champion, the world champion, baby.”
Button clinched this year’s title with a fifth-place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, capping a remarkable comeback for a driver whose career was virtually over just months before the season began.
Button was with the Honda team that folded its F1 operations because of financial trouble. He was left without a job and his chances of finding another ride were slim at best.
“I didn’t know if I would be racing in Formula One this year. That is the truth,” Button said. “I had a couple of options but nothing that would have furthered my career. I was thinking of taking a year out, but if you do that you get forgotten as many drivers have, so I am happy that we have been able to turn it around and get the car on the grid in Australia.
“This is the end of the fairy tale.”
Brawn GP took over the former Honda team just weeks before the season’s opening grand prix in Australia, and not only that, it put a car on the track that carried Button to the first of his six victories this year.
It turned out Button had his job and much more — a real chance to win the drivers’ title for the first time in his 10-year career.
Button didn’t waste the opportunity, lifting the trophy with one race to go in the season after an impressive run at Interlagos, driving aggressively from the start to move from 14th on the grid to fifth at the end of the race — enough to put an end to the title race.
He’ll travel to the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 1 with an insurmountable 15-point lead over Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and a 17-point advantage over Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello, the only challengers with a chance to keep Button from winning in Brazil.
His triumph helped Brawn GP become the first team to win the constructors’ championship in its debut season, and the first British team to win the title since McLaren in 1998.
Button also gave Britain back-to-back F1 trophies for the first time since Graham Hill won in 1968 and Jackie Stewart in ‘69. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took the title last year, also at the Brazilian GP.
Button was overshadowed by Hamilton the moment the youngster arrived in F1 with McLaren in 2007. All the talk was about Hamilton, especially after Button struggled so much in his early seasons in the series.
The 29-year-old Button made his F1 debut in 2000, touted as the next British star, but his career went from promising to disappointing very quickly. His only highlight season had been in 2004 with BAR-Honda, when he finished third in the standings behind Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Barrichello.
“It is a nice feeling,” Button said. “I know it has taken a lot longer than some people might have thought, but this is Formula One and there are some amazing drivers in this sport and some competitive teams, so that’s why it is so hard to win.”
Button’s first F1 victory came seven years after his debut, at the Hungarian GP with Honda in 2006. It had been his only win until this season.
He said it took awhile for him to understand what was necessary to compete in F1.
“Basically I was just too inexperienced and too young to be racing,” Button said. “The second and third years of my career were very difficult, especially the second. That’s when I realized it is not just about speed. You cannot win races with just speed and you need to work on many different areas.”
Button said those difficulties came to mind after he finally hoisted the champion’s trophy.
“All the good and bad memories go from your mind,” he said, “not just from this year, but previous years in the sport.”
Button took advantage of Brawn GP’s surprising superiority in the beginning of the year to win six of the first seven races, then was consistent enough the rest of the season to arrive in the final two races with a comfortable lead in the drivers’ standings.
He still doesn’t have a contract for 2010, but said he will start negotiations to keep his job at Brawn GP to try to repeat what they achieved this year.
“I don’t really think there has been a season like it in Formula One,” Button said. “It is great to be world champion and I personally think I thoroughly deserve it. I am a world champion and I am going to keep saying that.”
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