After overcoming weeks of setbacks and mounting pressure to clinch his maiden title with a champion’s drive at Interlagos, Jenson Button has made sure he has let the crowning achievement of his career slowly sink in over the past 11 days.
The Brawn ace returned to the paddock for the first time as world champion at the new Yas Marina circuit on Thursday and spoke to the press about how he has spent his first days as F1’s new king, why he is looking forward to a pressure-free season-finale and those rumours about his future.
Q: You said you spent the Sunday night pinching yourself, not quite believing you’re world champion. Are you still pinching yourself?
Jenson Button: It is a very strange situation because after the race in Brazil I headed back to the UK and had a PR day at Bluewater which was a lot of fun and then I headed up to the factory, going on the simulator and then spending a few hours with the team which was really nice.
We were in the auditorium and all the people that were working in the factory that day were in there with me. I was stood on a little box doing a speech; I spent an hour in there and they were asking questions and it was such a buzzy atmosphere, it was great.
Normally we have those meetings and we’ve either had a bad race or a good race, but you’re always looking forward and saying to the guys ‘we need to improve here, we’re good here, let’s stay focused’.
But it was nice to just reflect on the future and not talk about the future and just enjoy what we’ve achieved.
Since then I’ve been in Dubai for a week with my girlfriend, some friends and a few people that have really made this happen.
So it’s been a special few days and we’ve enjoyed ourselves. It’s also been very relaxing and that’s the sort of time when you lye in bed and think about the season and think about previous years and all those faces flash through your mind who have helped you on your way.
So it’s been a special few days.
But it’s a strange feeling because you have achieved what you set out what to do in your career, for so many years you’ve been fighting for it, you’ve achieved it – where do you go from here?
But there’s a lot to achieve from here, there’s new goals and new challenges. I’m not going to think about them too much now but there’s a lot of new challenges out there that I’m excited about.
Q: Ross Brawn said he was looking forward to seeing you ‘uncaged’ this weekend. Do you feel like that?
JB: This weekend I’m going to enjoy myself. It’s been a while since I jumped into a Formula 1 car and not felt stressed or a little bit under pressure.
It’s the first time I’ve can relax and can go and do my own thing.
It’s going to be a very special feeling, so I can just enjoy this weekend.
After this weekend I can relax and get away from Formula 1 for a few weeks which is what I think you need to do which will help you come back stronger when you do finally step back into the frame.
Q: If you are going to be more relaxed this weekend how do you expect that to manifest itself onto the track?
JB: I haven’t got a clue. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven an F1 car and not thought about the season.
Leading the world championship every race is very exciting, but there are pressures involved with that.
The last time I wasn’t thinking about the world title would have been the last race in ’08, so this will be the first race this season where I’ve just thought about going out there and enjoying the weekend which is going to be a nice feeling for sure.
Q: How do you feel about the name Button sitting alongside the likes of Fangio, Senna, Prost and Schumacher? There are fewer F1 world champions than US Presidents, so how does it feel when you put it in that context?
JB: It’s something that I’ve dreamed about for many years. It’s a great feeling, but before you achieve it you never know what to expect and you never know how that is going to feel.
I suppose as a kid I would have been ‘wow’ to have that possibility of having my name alongside all those great drivers, but because I’ve had to work so hard for it – and every driver has to work very hard for it in their career – it’s like I’ve done it, but I don’t get too…it’s a difficult one to explain. It’s very, very difficult.
Having worked for something for so long and then to achieve it, it’s difficult to know how it feels to have my name against those great drivers.
Q: Is a big part of it the fact it’s something that no one can take away from you…
JB: Yeah, that is a nice feeling. I will always be world champion – that’s something my dad’s stated in an interview.
He said that you’re a world champion for ever and my engineer, Shov [Andrew Shovlin], was obviously very excited at the weekend in Brazil but he sent me a text a few days later saying I’ve just realised what we’ve achieved.
He’d obviously had a couple of shandies, and he said: 'I’m at home with my lovely family and I’ve just realised what we’ve achieved. We’re the best in the world at the moment, the best at what we do, and I can’t wait for my kids to be old enough to tell them what we’ve achieved.'
And that’s something that excites me about my future for sure. Having a family and telling them that your daddy was world champion.
That’s going to be like 20 years time by the way, just so you know!
Q: On your more immediate future, I know you said in Brazil you read the papers so you must have been a bit surprised to find on Friday you were going to McLaren…
JB: I read the newspapers after the race weekend because it was all positive, it was great!
I read the papers for the first couple of days because I couldn’t get away from it because I was in the UK, but then I travelled here and I haven’t been on the internet all week.
It’s the first time this year and it’s a nice feeling being away from the real world – or this crazy real world we live in more like.
I have started discussions with Brawn, but we are not going to talk seriously until after this weekend when we can sit down and focus on discussing the future.