“The world championship lives with you forever,” Jenson Button hates the term “Former Champion”


“The world championship lives with you forever,” Jenson Button hates the term “Former Champion”

Jenson Button

Jenson Button the 2009 Formula One World Champion has recently indicated that in his eyes he is still a world champion and the term former champion does not sit well with him.

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The Briton man won his first and only World Championship in 2009 when after a new regulation change his Brawn team was able to come up with a car that proved good enough in helping Button win his maiden World Championship.

During the 2009 edition, Button was able to win six of the first seven races and by midseason was able to build a sizeable gap between himself and the chasing pack.

Jenson Button
Jenson Button

Button was not able to claim any more victories after midseason but his strong show during the start proved to be the difference as a chasing Sebastian Vettel was not able to close the gap in the left races.

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Like Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen, Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill, and Nigel Mansell, Button also ended his career as a one-time Drivers’ champion.

Now just like all the others, he is a former champion except Max Verstappen. However, the 42-year-old is not very fond of the term.

Jenson Button on the World Champion tag

Jenson Button
Jenson Button

“The World Championship lives with you forever.”

And I’ll never be a former World Champion. I hate it when people say that. I am a World Champion, you can’t take that away from me!”

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While discussing the barrage of emotions after his 2009 triumph, Button said, “It was more of a relief. It had been a tough year, a great year in the beginning and then sort of a slump through the year, and then a great ending.”

But when you wake up in the morning, you think ‘damn, I’m a World Champion’, you don’t think about the race wins.”

Button these days is serving the Williams team as their Chief advisor and also does his broadcasting duties for Sky Sports.

“I don’t miss Formula 1.

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It’s at the pinnacle of the sport, but I don’t miss 23 races traveling around the world.”

Jenson Button
Jenson Button

It’s kind of a dangerous place to put yourself. I came into Formula 1 at 20 and when I left at 36, I hadn’t really learned a lot about life. I had to do a lot of growing up.”

Jenson Button believes that he got the actual taste of life after leaving Formula One and is now happy with his life and feels F1 is a different world altogether.

According to him a person after coming out of F1 has to do a lot of work in order to get to grips with the outside world and has to learn a lot of new things that drivers don’t get the chance to learn during their careers.

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Also Read: “You don’t get any cookie,” Sebastian Vettel admits not appreciating the work behind the track