The 30th episode of F1 Beyond The Grid podcast has Jenson Button speak on the teams he raced for, his rivals/teammates, 2009 title win and more.
Button started the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast talking about his life right now and his work with Sky Sports, when he recalled his first commentary stint with ITV. He also touched on his two months son and his possible future.
When talking about it, he touched upon racing against Max Verstappen’s mother and dad. Discussing about his career, Button talked about the difficult two seasons with Honda in 2007 and 2008 ahead of the glory year in 2009.
He went into details later on but before that, he spoke about his Williams F1 drive which he got after a shoot-out. They discuss on his move to Benetton and his relation with Flavio Briatore, and moved on to talk about his next drive with BAR.
They touched on Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher Felipe Massa as Button felt 2004 was the season, where he felt as a leader in the sport and not a newcomer. They then moved on to the shock news of Honda leaving after 2008.
Button tried to get investors into the team and eventually Ross Brawn came along. They did not think that the car was so quick even with the regulation change. But realised its potential in the test, which propelled their championship charge.
But it almost went fruitless with Red Bull Racing’s constant updates during the season, while Brawn GP had none per say. He eventually sealed the title in Brazil GP as he feels that they should make a movie about him considering the season they had.
They also spoke on Button’s issues with tyre temperatures which he has been plagued with all his career. With Brawn glory over, Button talked about his move to McLaren despite having the offer from Mercedes but a better chance of a win with former pushed him that way.
They talked about racing against Lewis Hamilton as well as Button stated that his time with Honda was the best he had, especially in 2006. He also talked about some of the solid races he had, where he could battle his teammate unlike now.
He feels the 2011 Japanese GP was his best win, while the 2012 Belgian GP was the toughest, which was overshadowed by the telemetry-gate. He rates Hamilton as the fastest teammate and Fernando Alonso as the most complete racer.
He put Rubens Barrichello as the technical genius, while Sergio Perez was a surprise for him. They ended the F1 podcast talking about his future in Super GT, Le Mans 24 Hours and also the off-road experiences he is having, where he is not interested in Dakar.
Hear what Valtteri Bottas spoke in last week’s podcast
