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Button clinches first F1 title

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-10-19 18:07

Whilst race winner Mark Webber soaked Lewis Hamilton with Mumm, Jenson Button hugged his father John beneath the podium in Brazil on Sunday. It has been a long ride to the day when Jenson could shout, "I'm the world champion, baby!"

The Buttons understand very well the tiny details and lucky breaks that separate those who make it to Grand Prix stardom from others who sink into relative obscurity. Studying British talent a decade ago you would have been forgiven for putting others ahead of Jenson Button.

Jenson had finished third in the 1999 British Formula 3 Championship. This series has consistently highlighted future F1 stars. Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet (senior), Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen all won the F3 title in Britain and went on to be multiple F1 champions. Fully half the British F3 title winners of the last two decades (including Button's team-mate this year at Brawn GP, Rubens Barrichello) made it into Grand Prix racing.

The champion in 1999 was Marc Hynes. The 21-year old also won the F3 Masters: a one-off race which, like the more famous Macau Grand Prix, brings together top talents from the various national F3 championships. Victorious in Macau that year was another Brit, Darren Manning - who had also just won the Japanese F3 series.

So Button faced stiff competition for the attention of Sir Frank Williams. The quintessential manufacturer-independent F1 team owner had been confined to a wheelchair by a road accident in 1986 but his thought processes lost none of their agility. Your correspondent was fortunate enough to be at a lunch table with Sir Frank in the winter of '99. The subject turned to drivers who could replace Alex Zanardi who had not achieved the results expected. Darren Manning seemed Frank's favourite and (the memory is foggy) had either recently or would soon try an F1 Williams. Like his father when trading race cars (or aircraft) Jonathan Williams was razor sharp with details of the top speed advantage Manning had enjoyed over Button at Macau - important considering Button was a very close runner up around the streets on China's southern coast.

Frank would already have known that 1999 was Button's first in F3. Hynes and Manning had considerably more experience. Jenson had been fortunate, assisted by racing photographer Keith Sutton, to secure a drive in the British series but the Renault engine his team used was not the strongest. Williams would also not have missed Jenson being judged, by a panel of racing experts, the winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award in 1998.

Button got that Williams drive, of course. Hynes and Manning continued to race but with careers past the zenith. Unlike Lewis Hamilton, who was developed and supported under the wing of the McLaren team for a decade before racing in F1, Button would likely have faced a bleak future without the Williams decision. The gap between making it or not is slim.

As will it be between the F3 cars and the walls on the Macau circuit this November 19-22. Look out there for another British talent, Alexander Sims. He was awarded the McLaren Autosport award last year (a decade after Button) and looks likely to finish third in the F3 Euro Series. If he finishes second at Macau expect Sir Frank Williams to take notice.