Lewis Hamilton has only ever been outscored by one team-mate during their entire time driving in the same car: fellow Brit Jenson Button who has now announced his retirement from racing
He is one of Britain’s great sporting heroes, and now Formula 1 champion Jenson Button’s racing career has finally reached the end of the road. The 2009 title-winner walked away from F1 in 2016 but has continued to compete, latterly in the World Endurance Championship. Next weekend’s eight-hour race in Bahrain will be will be his last professional drive.
Button remains well-known to the modern audience thanks to his sharp analysis as a Sky Sports pundit. But those with longer memories know he is among an elite few Brits who have conquered F1 – and an even smaller group who have gone up against Lewis Hamilton in a fair fight, and won.
Button established himself in F1 in the early 2000s with a Renault team that were just about to become the dominant force on the grid. He never got the chance to be a part of it, controversially axed by Flavio Briatore who installed in his place a young man named Fernando Alonso.
The Spaniard hadn’t scored an F1 point, but did go on to become a double world champion with the team. Fair enough. Button found a new home with Honda with whom he scored several podiums and finally got his first F1 win in 2006, in his 113th Grand Prix.
When Honda quit suddenly in December 2008, he feared for his F1 future. Ross Brawn famously bought the team for £1 – the catalyst for one of sport’s great fairytale successes. Brawn GP were outrageously fast in the early months of the season and Button’s six wins in the first seven rounds were enough for him to become World champion.
But the Brit wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as he should have, admitting last year: “It was one of the toughest years of my life. I got to the point where I put so much pressure on myself after those seven races… My head was in the wrong place. Everything was a failure apart from a win.”
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He joined McLaren as World champion in 2010, relishing the chance to go up against fellow Brit Hamilton who had also won one title at that time. Button won two of the first four races but none of the rest of the year, in a car that better suited Hamilton’s driving style.
But 2011 was the year he produced some of his very best driving, even if he was beaten to the title by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. His last-to-first win on a rain-soaked day in Canada is the enduring memory, though victory in Japan – Button’s “second home” – was his most emotional.
He scored 43 points more than Hamilton that year. Only Nico Rosberg and George Russell have beaten the now-seven-time champion as his team-mate, with Charles Leclerc likely to join that list this season. And Button remains the only one to have scored more points than Hamilton over the course of their whole time as team-mates, edging out his fellow Brit over their three seasons together.
While Hamilton left for Mercedes, Button stuck with McLaren through their decline until he walked away from F1. Now 45, he is quitting racing for good to spend more time with his young family. Button said: “My kids are four and six. You’re away for a week and you miss so much, you don’t get this time back. I’ve missed a lot the last couple of years, which I knew would happen, but I’m not willing to do that again for another season.”
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