Having endured an often testy three-year partnership with Hamilton at McLaren,
he now finds himself paired with 23-year-old Mexican Sergio Perez, and there
is little question that the 2009 world champion is relishing a reassertion
of his alpha-male status.
“It has been a long time,” Button reflects, part nostalgic for his
remarkable world title triumph with Brawn, and part rueful that McLaren have
not won a constructors’ championship since 1998.
Last season ended victoriously, as he secured a win amid the mayhem of
Interlagos, but he is determined not to repeat the same mistakes that
relegated him to fifth in the final standings.
“We can’t have a year like last year, in terms of reliability issues,
and just being inconsistent,” he argues.
“Everything has to go to plan, to be smooth, because I don’t think
people are going to be making big mistakes. It has to be a very clean
season, and to do that we have to stay relaxed, pull together, and focus on
every single detail about the car and the race weekend. We can’t slip up at
any time.”
The preparations Button has made for this season have been exhausting.
Supremely fit, he has already run a sub-three hour marathon this winter and,
at home on the Riviera last month, he recorded a time of 1:19 over
half-marathon distance in Cannes.
“It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done,” he
acknowledges.
“The way I got through it was to think about the first race of the
season – not feeling the pressure, being comfortable with myself. That’s
what keeps you going.”
If Button has never been in finer physical condition at 33, then his mental
reflexes are also likely to be typically quicksilver in Melbourne – on a
circuit where he has won three times before, including 12 months ago. The
sunshine of Albert Park appears the perfect fit for his own luminous
personality.
“At the first race it’s all fresh, new, exciting,” he says. “Every
single person in the paddock is smiling. Melbourne is a great city to be
starting the season – a beautiful setting, and it’s just a place that works
for me.”
But the feeling of rejuvenation runs deeper, to the fact that he is no longer
forced to toil in Hamilton’s shadow and that in Perez, he has a youthful
sidekick to whom he can play the avuncular elder statesman.
“I would never underrate, I would always overrate,” Button adds,
eager not to give the impression that he will be taking Perez’s talents
lightly.
His inheritance at McLaren is a cumbersome one. For decades the team that Ron
Dennis transformed into a behemoth of F1 has always been blessed with
totemic drivers: from Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in the Eighties, to those
Finnish coldbloods Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen in the Nineties, and
finally to Hamilton until his much-heralded departure to Mercedes last year.
While no one can ever take his world crown away, Button still struggles to be
mentioned in the same breath as the drivers who once claimed McLaren’s top
billing.
Christian Horner, team principal at the all-conquering Red Bull, believes
greater recognition is due. “Jenson has impressed me enormously since
he became world champion,” he said.
“To everybody’s surprise, he jumped ship and went to what was perceived
as Lewis’ team. But over a period of three seasons that they were together,
he was extremely shrewd with the way he operated, getting the team to morph
around him.
” Then he started delivering on the track, too. Now he is very much the
de facto team leader. He is a driver we do not underestimate.”
While Horner’s words should comfort Button, he knows it his priority to stop
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel from embarking on a procession to a fourth
consecutive title.
“If Sebastian walks away with it, it wouldn’t be the best thing,”
he concedes. “But the racing has been fantastic the past two years, the
best I have ever seen in F1. There was no quarter given throughout 2012.
“As long as the fighting’s there, I think that’s the most important
factor. For us it would hurt a lot if Red Bull won again, because clearly we
want to succeed. It has been four years since we last won a drivers’ title
and we want to get it back.
“We’re going to do everything we can to do that.”