UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: MOTOR RACING - Jenson Button on why he has left Brawn for McLaren

Record ID: 722215

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: MOTOR RACING - Jenson Button on why he has left Brawn for McLaren
  • Date: 20th November 2009
  • Summary: UNKNOWN LOCATION (2007) (REUTERS) 2008 WORLD CHAMPION LEWIS HAMILTON DRIVING MCLAREN ROUND TRACK
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA45G5ZM3YX5ILAG6WL82MN77MY
  • Story Text: World Formula One champion Jenson Button gives his reasons for leaving Brawn GP, now Mercedes Grand Prix, and joining McLaren instead.
    Formula One world champion Jenson Button explained the motivation for his move to McLaren on Thursday (November 19), saying he wanted to move out of his comfort zone to take on Lewis Hamilton in the same cars.
    Speaking to Reuters Television a day after McLaren announced his move from Brawn on a multi-year deal, Button said he felt after winning the title last month he needed a fresh challenge.
    "You never know what you will feel when you win a world championship if you are ever lucky enough to win one,a when I did win the world championship it was a very special feeling that you know I had achieved what I had set out to achieve in Formula One but immediately I thought so what happens now? You know, where do I go from here?," Button said in London for the launch of his book 'My Championship Year."
    "As a person I am always looking for new challenges - for me to go to McLaren, and have a team mate that's also won a world championship Lewis Hamilton, - it's a real challenge.
    "I've been very comfortable within that team (Brawn) and it is taking me outside of my comfort zone," he said of the move.
    "But that's what excites me and that is a real challenge for me. That is a challenge I am definitely up for.
    "It's going to be a challenge going to a team where Lewis has been for three years and where he's won the world championship," added the 29-year-old Briton, whose former team has now been taken over by Mercedes.
    "But that's why I am doing it. I want to challenge myself, I want to challenge Lewis and that is so exciting for me.
    "That's the reason why I am going, I'm not going because it's going to be easy, I'm going because it's going to be tough."
    Button said he had spoken to Ross Brawn, his former team principal, on Wednesday morning and explained the reasons for his decision.
    "For me my aim with the team was always to become world champion as any driver has the same goal. And we achieved that in '09, at the end of '09 I was out of contract and I wanted a new challenge so I spoke to Ross many times, I spoke to Ross yesterday and we discussed it in the morning and you know it is always disappointing to go your separate ways when you have been so close to someone who has really helped you to win a title but I think he understood the reasons behind it and we will stay friends, I hope," Button said.
    The new world champion said he had experience dealing with demanding team mates.
    "I have been with a few, Jaques Villeneuve being one of the biggest personalities that there is on this earth I think back in '03, Ralf Schumacher in 2000, you know Rubens, he's a great guy, Rubens Barrichello, but he is also a fierce rival. He wants to win and the first person that he had to beat was his team mate so I've been with a few, and we are all competitive people and Lewis will be the same," he said, adding: "I am looking forward to working with him, I'm sure. We'll work together to move us all along and I think we will be, as team mates I think we will be very strong together I think we will work well together but ultimately we are racing together and we want to beat each other and that's the same for every single driver on the grid."
    Button said he was looking forward to partnering 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton and welcomed the trend for teams to field two strong drivers rather than one strong and one inexperienced.
    "A team need two drivers to be quick and to be competitive I personally feel and both drivers should always be given equal opportunities, and I think every team in Formula One works in that way these days, maybe they didn't in the past but they do now. And it is great to see, you know with Ferrari you are going to have two very quick drivers: Alonso is a double world champion, Massa missed out last year by one point and they are both fierce competitors and that is great to see. Lewis and myself at McLaren, Brawn will have, Mercedes-Benz GP, will have Nico and I don't know who but it will be a strong driver line-up and the same at Red Bull so it is good to see so many guys in competitive cars."
    The new McLaren driver said that he was enjoying being the world champion, having achieved a childhood wish.
    "You know there are only 31 or 32 Formula One world champions. There have been 10 British world champions, yes it is a very special feeling, it's something that I have wanted since the age of eight so 21 years it has taken me to achieve my goal in Formula One. And for sure it has sunk in, but there are times over the past couple of months that I have woken up and it has come to me that I am the world champion or if I am out on the bike, training, it just happens, I just have it in my mind, it's such a nice feeling it makes me so happy the rest of the day is just bliss after that and it is always when I am on my own that these special moments come flooding back to me which is nice."
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