Jenson Button on Formula1.com!

"The Lesser know... Jenson Button", from Formula1.com

We get up close and personal with Honda’s resident football fan and porridge lover, the one and only Jenson Button…

Q: What's in your garage at home?
JB: I have a Honda S2000 in Monaco.

Q: Tell us something we don't know about you?
JB: I am a big Arsenal fan. I also love porridge and a good roast dinner.

Q: Your favourite song for karaoke?
JB: ‘The One and Only’ by Chesney Hawkes.

Q: The last good deed you did?
JB: I am a patron of the Make A Wish Foundation which is really important to me and we have just invited two children from the Foundation to come and visit me at the Honda Racing F1 Team factory on Brackley in a couple of weeks.

Q: If you were a superhero, what would your special powers be?
JB: I travel so much that I guess the special power I would like to have is to be able to fly - then I wouldn’t have to wait in all the queues at airports…

Q: Your most prized possession?
JB: As far as racing goes my most prized possessions are my racing helmets. Other than that I don’t really have any prized possessions. My family and friends are what is most important to me.

Q: The person you most admire?
JB: I admire Bono from the band U2 and also Lance Armstrong for his dedication to his sport.

Q: Do you have any bad habits?
JB: I have a short attention span.

Q: What would you be if you weren’t a racing driver?
JB: I am a racing driver, so I don’t know what I would be if I wasn’t - I’ll find out after F1…

Q: Funniest thing you've read about yourself in the press?
JB: That my girlfriend is going to be a grid girl. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Q: Who would you want to play you in a movie?
JB: Owen Wilson. He’s awesome!

Owen Wilson? :P

So much has happened in just a week...

Gosh, so much to report on. Let's see... where do I start?

Jenson's back in form, which is the best news of all. His ribs are healed up, and he looks to be in top shape.

"Although I have been out of the car for a while, I am very pleased with my return to the cockpit and also my fitness level, which I have been working hard on since
Christmas."

That's from Jenson talking about his immediate future with Honda, as he hopes to move closer to his first ever F1 Title. He also talked about his plans further up ahead (like at age 34) in "the Times", a copy of which is in the official forums I think.

Jenson really does look set to present a serious challenge for this year's championship, and others are taking notice as well. Here's DC proclaiming, Jenson Button's gonna conquer F1". From a fan's perspective, that's a pretty good headline if I ever saw one. Hehe. And I am praying and hoping that it holds true.

He's a man on a mission this year. And I hope the entire Honda team does get behind him and challenges for the top spot. Honda seems ready enough, and they've recently launched their new car (sans the new livery, which happens next month) at Barcelona. Jenson was able to drive both the RA106 and the new RA107 for some direct comparison, and he looks to have come away feeling good about the new car. It did stall on his first lap out, but once Jenson got going he was able to put in a well-driven 86 laps.

That about does my week ending report for now. For all that you've missed, you can catch up by checking out Honda's offical site at HondaRacingF1.com, or at Jenson's official site at JensonButton.com. To make things easy, you can also Google News for the latest on Jenson (I've set the link to already filter things out).

Hill drops a word on Button, too

Here's former world champion Damon Hill dropping a word on Jenson, as he talks about Britain's current crop of hopefuls for the 2007 season:

Hill said Button, who took his first grand prix win in Hungary last August, was a much stronger driver than the appearances suggested.

"This year has to be the best chance we've had since I won the championship for there to be another British world champion," he said.

"I have great faith in Jenson. I think he has a whole team around him so you can compare his position quite well to that of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari...He's got a very good chance of winning on a regular basis."

I can't wait for the season to start. These outlooks and predictions are wearing thin. I wish the actual racing would get on soon. And I do hope Jenson's completely healed up from his injury by now. Can't wait to see him back behind the wheel.

Rubens says Jenson needs to complain more

Seriously, Rubens wants Jenson to complain a bit more. Hahaha.

Taken in the right context though, he was talking about complacency that may have settled in with Jenson about the way things work around Honda. Rubens was simply encouraging Jenson to be a bit more assertive in asking for changes for him to be able to craft a better, race-winning car. I think Jenson has already started to do so, really making the team his and getting them behind him and getting that race pace back, specially after that win. It never hurts for your number two to give a bit more of a push. Rubens wants Honda to improve just as much, and I bet everyone at Honda will be on the same page too. :)

Anyhow, here's an excerpt from the article of Barrichello talking about Honda still having more work to do, from Autosport.com:

Jenson Button and Honda Racing still have work to do if they are to make the steps forward needed to fight for regular race wins, claims Rubens Barrichello.

Although Button finished off the season as the highest points-scorer from the Hungarian Grand Prix onward, Barrichello is under no illusions about the progress that it still needed ahead of 2007.

"I think that this team has a huge amount of potential, but still has some work to do if we are to become consistent winners," said Barrichello, who joined the team at the start of this year.

Happy reading!

I'm only happy when it rains

Post title was taken from an old Garbage song. Hahaha. What's it got to do with Jenson, you ask? Well, I just re-read an old interview by Rachel Cooke on Buzzle.com. And this paragraph really stood out:

So where does Jenson Button fit into all this? 'Button is a very, very quick driver,' James continues. 'Definitely one of the tiny few. "How can we tell?" you ask. The answer is that the difference shows up when it rains. Both Senna and Schumacher first leapt to prominence when the rain temporarily nullified the otherwise crippling disadvantage of second-rate machinery.

Wow. That was back in 2004. Jenson did get his breakthrough win at Hungaroring in the wets. Wouldn't it be nice for Jenson to someday rank among both Ayrton and Schumi among the sport's best? At the very least, 2007 should be a great year, with Honda's potential looking as bright as ever. That should really bring out the talent that Jenson has. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Just to be absolutely sure though, maybe we could "seed" the clouds to make it rain on every single grand prix in '07. Hahahahaha. Just kidding.

Go Jenson!

Anthony Davidson on Jenson Button

I was browsing through some Ant stuff for a bit, and found this little tidbit from an interview on Crash.net:

Q:
There could be as many as four British drivers in F1 next year, which is good to the sport in this country. How much are you looking forward to the chance to rekindle the old karting battles that you used to have with Jenson?

AD:
A lot. Hopefully, we are in a position to be high up on the grid as Jenson probably will be and I won't be looking for him in my mirrors during the race as he comes round to lap me! It will be good to be out on the same track as him and I hope we can have some good battles.

Aguri and Honda are two totally different teams but, as I said earlier, I am still in the Honda family and it will be interesting to not only fight with Jenson but with the team I used to work with - it will be quite strange.

Just wanted to share that. There isn't much else on the news at the moment. Ant deserves his time in the spotlight though. After all those years behind Jenson and Taku (and then Rubens), I'm glad that he finally gets his chance at Super Aguri (with Taku... yet again). He's a lightning-quick driver, and his testing and development abilities will be greatly missed at the factory Honda team.

Things to read from months past

For all those who haven't come across it yet (it came out about a month after the win at the Hungaroring), I think this article by The Sunday Times Online on Jenson makes for a good read. It's a bit lengthy, but it does share with its readers a glimpse of what Jenson's like.

You've also got Button's exclusive year end interview from Formula1.com.

Happy reading! :)