'I'll admit I made mistakes. I bought into my own hype': Jenson Button on his playboy image and life after Formula 1



F1 success has brought him a £53m fortune, a model girlfriend and houses across the world... but what does he do when he decides it’s time to take his foot off the pedal?

Worth an estimated £40 million before winning the championship crown in 2009, Jenson Button's new 2011 contract with McLaren has pushed up his bank balance to around £53 million

You need to be either ridiculously famous or fabulously rich to look at home in Eze-sur-Mer.



One of the jewels of the French Riviera, this tiny beachside village, with its breathtaking panoramic views, is where the jet set come to play. Being both globally famous and fabulously wealthy, Jenson Button fits right in.



In fact, one of several palatial homes he owns is less than five miles away, in that bolthole for the super rich, Monte Carlo.



Although we’re only here for Live’s exclusive photo shoot, Button seems quite at ease in this spectacular pool that looks out over the Mediterranean. In fact, you could almost see him retiring here…



On the face of it, his life could not be going more swimmingly.



Now in his 13th season as an F1 driver, Button remains one of the sport’s most bankable stars.



With his matinee idol looks and smooth charm, he’s sponsorship catnip of the highest order.



Worth an estimated £40 million before winning the championship crown in 2009, his new 2011 contract with McLaren has pushed up his bank balance to around £53 million.



And yet doubts persist that Button will be able to recapture the form that brought him the championship three years ago.



On average, an F1 driver reaches his performance peak between 30 and 32.

There are many who question whether Button, now in his 33rd year, is actually past his best. As Button himself admits, he’s already planning for his retirement.



'I never listened in class because I was always daydreaming about racing. I never thought for a moment about doing anything else. There was no guarantee that I'd make a career in it but I never had any plan B,' said Jenson

‘It’s on my mind,’ he says.

‘In any sport, the trick is to retire at the right time. So many drivers say they look forward to retiring from F1 and they can’t wait to live a more leisurely life. After four months away from it, they go stir crazy because they miss the constant buzz.



‘To understand the intensity of driving an F1 car, you have to be in it. When you’re driving a 750hp machine at 200mph, the noise and the vibrations are incredible.



'The G-force when you take big corners is like someone trying to rip your head off. You hit the brakes, and it feels as if the skin is being pulled off your body.



'I sweat so much during a race I lose three litres of fluid.



'The adrenaline is such that my heart is beating 150 to the minute. The experience is like nothing else on earth.’

He concedes that fears for his own safety on the F1 circuit have escalated as he’s got older and that every crash ramps up the stress exponentially.



‘I’ve had a few crashes in my career. By far the worst was at Monaco in 2003. I exited the tunnel at 180mph, my car clipped a barrier, skidded down an escape road and crashed into a wall.



'When they dragged me from the car I’d been unconscious for a few minutes. It put the fear of God in me to be honest.



'As a driver, once you’ve experienced something like that, you never lose the fear that it might happen again.



‘To drive an F1 car you have to be a little mad. On the morning of a race there’s a mix of excitement and fear. If it’s a wet track, then it’s worse as you’re not in control most of the time, which is the thing all drivers fear the most.



'You go down a straight and there’s a wall of spray in front of you. If a car has crashed in front of you, you’re going to hit it at 200mph.

'You’d have to be stupid to think that everything is always going to be all right. If anything, the fear intensifies as you get older but it’s a hard thing to give up.



'When I do retire, I know for a fact that I’ll never be able to replace the incredible feeling I get when I’m driving an F1 car.’



He’s also been given reason to be anxious about his security away from the track.



'If I step even slightly out of line, my family will put me straight. I try not to take advantage of my celebrity status unless it's to benefit someone else,' said Jenson (pictured with his £12,000 S-Works McLaren Venge bike)

In November 2010, while being driven from the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, Brazil by a police-trained chauffeur, Button was the target of a dramatic attempted hold-up when his car was surrounded by men carrying automatic weapons.



‘It was completely terrifying,’ he says. ‘I was looking out of the window and noticed that one of these guys had a gun. It was unreal, like watching something in a film.

'I yelled out to my driver just as these guys started running towards our car. He stepped on the accelerator and weaved in and out of six cars, smashing into all of them.



'As we made our escape I looked out the rear window and saw two men with handguns and one with a machine gun.



'It took an hour before it sank in just how much more serious the situation could have been. I do wonder how safe I really am out there. I try not to let it stop me living my life.



'Whether it’s the fear of a crash on the circuit or the fear of being attacked, I have to put it to the back of my mind.’

Growing up in the picturesque Somerset town of Frome, racing became Button’s obsession from the age of seven when his father, a former rallycross driver, bought him his first scrambling bike.



‘That was it for me. From that moment all I wanted to do was drive. All I ever thought about was racing.



'My school reports always used to point out that my concentration levels were appalling. I never listened in class because I was always daydreaming about racing.



'I never thought for a moment about doing anything else. There was no guarantee that I’d make a career in it but I never had any plan B.’



Through his teens, he built a reputation as a fearsome kart racer, and by the age of 18 he’d graduated to cars.



In December 1999, he became the youngest ever F1 driver when he joined the Williams team.

In his first season he finished in a respectable eighth place but then moved to Benetton where he endured a dismal 2001, finishing 17th with only two points.



Suddenly the knives were out. He was accused of lacking the ruthlessness needed to be a champion.



Dubbed ‘Jet-Set Jenson’, he was criticised for spending too much time partying.



‘I’ll admit I made mistakes,’ he says. ‘I bought into my own hype. I had to learn that there was a lot more to it than just driving a car. I needed to understand about fitness and nutrition.



'I had to learn about the psychological side of the sport. I had to understand the engineering side of things so that I could talk to mechanics when problems arose with my car.

'It took me some time to realise that I had to be well versed in all those areas, otherwise I would always underachieve.



‘As for being a playboy, I was a young guy who enjoyed letting his hair down. I had a lot of fun around that time but I wouldn’t say it ever got out of hand. I still like to have fun but it’s safer to party behind closed doors.’

Jenson celebrates his 2012 Australian GP victory with runner-up Sebastian Vettel. 'Once you become a champion, people expect you to keep coming first,' he said

It took 113 races before he notched up his first win, at the 2006 Hungarian GP. Then followed three years before he clinched the 2009 title, with a fifth place finish in Brazil.

Just as British cyclist Victoria Pendleton recently admitted that winning gold in Beijing was the saddest day of her life as she had suddenly achieved everything she had ever set out to, so Button’s night of triumph sounds less than jubilant.



‘There was a big party for the team after I’d secured the championship,’ he says.



‘But I stayed for one drink and went back to my hotel. I sat there on my own for hours.



'It should have been the happiest night of my life but it felt like a total anti-climax. I sat and thought about what was going to happen next. I knew that, from that point, coming second would never be good enough.



'Once you become a champion, people expect you to keep coming first.



'You need to be a superstar every day of every week of the season. You’re not allowed an off-day. You’re not allowed an unlucky streak. It’s a lot of pressure to live under.’



If he’s feeling any pressure he’s not showing it. Strolling into the luxury Eze-sur-Mer villa, dressed in T-shirt and shorts, sporting a healthy Cote d’Azur tan, he couldn’t be any more relaxed or easy-going.

For the past three years he’s been in a relationship with model Jessica Michibata.



‘Because she’s Japanese I have to do a lot of karaoke,’ he jokes.

‘Whenever I’m prodded into doing it, I choose an Oasis song. I grew up listening to the band and it’s easy to do Liam Gallagher. You just have to look a bit aggressive and remember to throw the microphone at the floor when you finish.’



And Button is fully aware that fame and its trappings can easily turn people into divas.

‘I’m not the sort of bloke who’s going to walk into a room and start demanding, “Where are my blue Smarties?”’ he says.



‘I make a point of doing normal things to keep my feet on the ground. I wash my own clothes. I do my own ironing. I’ve got a cleaner but once a week I’ll clean the house.



'If I step even slightly out of line, my family will put me straight. I try not to take advantage of my celebrity status unless it’s to benefit someone else.



‘To my sisters I’m still the annoying kid they used to beat up, but now I’ll walk into a restaurant with them, get the best table and they look at me as though to say, “Is that really our little brother?”



'But there’s a limit to that sort of thing. I’ve never felt entitled to be treated any different from anyone else. Above all else I’d hate to turn into the kind of spoiled brat I hated when I was growing up.



Jenson and girlfriend Jessica Michibata finish a triathlon in Oxford

‘People assume that wealth changes you but it hasn’t with me.



'I never get used to the idea that I can go out and pretty much buy anything I desire.

'I do remember the days when going out to get a new computer or a mobile phone was a real treat. I’d have to save up for it and it really meant something to get it in my hands. That’s never left me.



'Some people think nothing of spending a few grand on a bottle of wine.



'Occasionally I might splash out on a £100 bottle and I’ll be thinking, “This is an awful lot of money for a few glasses of wine.” For £100, it had better be very good.’



Button has already given a lot of thought to what will follow F1.



‘Whenever it happens, I won’t be content to lounge about on my boat and soak up the sun all day.



'Nor are you likely to find me employed as an F1 pundit or making a fool of myself on reality TV.

'I’d most like to be involved in coaching young F1 drivers, passing on the experience I’ve gained in my career. I’ve got an interest in a restaurant in Harrogate too.

'Most of all though I want to do triathlons.



‘I started doing them in 2007, because things weren’t going too well for me on the track and I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.



'I needed to find something else I could do where I saw the benefit from all the hard work I was putting in – because I wasn’t seeing it in F1.



'When I’ve underperformed in a race, doing a triathlon is the perfect punishment.



'My ambition would be to compete in the Ironman, which involves a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride and a marathon.



‘Triathlons aren’t ever going to make me money. But whenever I have any time off it doesn’t take me long before I am pining to get back out on one.



'So me and my missus will don our swim caps and go for a 2k swim. Or I’ll climb on my bike and cycle up a mountain.



'On the bike, I’m away from the F1 circus. I know there’s going to be no paparazzi in hot pursuit. It’s complete peace. There’s nothing on my mind except riding that bike.



‘On the racetrack I’m competing against all the other drivers. In a triathlon I’m competing with myself. I know I’m not going to come out on top in all three categories.



'I’m out to better my own performance in every area. What makes it so addictive is that you’re always looking to improve on your last time out.



‘My cycling needed some improvement. I cycled with Lance Armstrong in Hawaii and he gave me some useful tips about how to pace myself properly.



'I cycle in Monaco with cycling pros Mark Renshaw and Philippe Gilbert.



'When I’m training with them I can hold on. On the flat they’re in their lower threshold. It’s when they get to the hills that they kick in.



'One thing those guys have taught me is that it’s possible to train too hard. It’s important to put the brakes on and actually enjoy it.’



Jenson enjoys triathlons so much he now has his own Jenson Button Trust Triathlon, raising funds for Help For Heroes.



‘The idea is to get 500 triathletes to compete against me. I’m sending out the message, “Come and beat me”, which I’m sure a lot of them will. I’d like to think I’m pretty good at it but a pro athlete is going to destroy me.



'That’s not going to be easy to take because I’ve got big issues about losing. I’m also good at finding excuses when I do lose.



‘But I’ve still got ambitions within F1. Another championship would be a fantastic achievement.



'Also, before I retire, I’d love to compete in a London Grand Prix. Bernie Ecclestone is currently driving the idea forward and Boris Johnson seems to be in favour of it.

'I just love the idea of all these F1 cars speeding around London, past iconic landmarks like Big Ben and Trafalgar Square.



'To win a London Grand Prix would be the greatest possible way for me to bow out.’



The Jenson Button Trust Triathlon is at Luton Hoo on August 19. To register for the event, visit jensonbutton.com/trusttriathlon.htm