Reliving Jenson Button's British Grand Prix Disappointments and Disasters
"I still hold out hope," McLaren's Jenson Button said as he prepares for next weekend's British Grand Prix, per the Guardian's Paul Weaver. "I want to be on the podium and win in front of my home crowd."
Fifteen times Button has started at Silverstone and fifteen times he has ended the race without standing on the podium. His countryman and former team-mate Lewis Hamilton has four podiums and two victories in eight British Grands Prix. Button has finished fourth on three occasions, tantalizingly close to tasting the champagne with the Union Jack hanging over his head.
This year, as McLaren's struggles continue with their new Honda power units, Button will be lucky to finish in the top 10—and he knows it.
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But he has had opportunities for podium finishes (or more) several times. Throughout his career, Button has averaged about one podium for every five races he has started, but at his home race, something has always gone wrong.
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As painful as it may be for Button fans, let's look back at his British Grand Prix career.
In 2000, Button's rookie season, the Silverstone race was held in April. It was the fourth Formula One race of Button's career, but he qualified his Williams-BMW sixth and was running fourth before his final pit stop. Eventually, he finished an impressive fifth (albeit nearly 40 seconds behind Michael Schumacher, who was third).
"It is great to finish in the points when no one apart for Heinz-Harald [Frentzen] went off," said Button, per grandprix.com. "It's a great feeling."
After an entrance like that, surely better results were just around the corner.
In fact, it was three years before Button scored another point on home tarmac.
In 2001, the 21-year-old from Frome qualified 18th in his uncompetitive Benetton B201 and finished 15th, two laps behind the leaders.
The following season, the team was rebranded as Renault and their car was much-improved. Button finished fifth at the Nurburgring two weeks before the British Grand Prix. A mid-race rain-shower at Silverstone ended any hopes of a strong performance for the Michelin-shod Renaults, though.
The Bridgestone wet tyres had a significant performance advantage, and their drivers took seven of the top 10 finishing positions. Button retired six laps from the finish and was classified 12th.
He moved to BAR Honda for 2003, partnering with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve. A broken suspension during qualifying in Britain forced Button to start from the back of the grid. He eventually finished eighth, but the race is most memorable for laicised priest Neil Horan's protest, in which he ran down the Hangar Straight as cars swerved around him. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
The 2004 race looked like Button's first real chance to finish in the top three at Silverstone. He scored his first career podium in Malaysia and had six podiums in the first 10 races, leading up to the British Grand Prix.
After qualifying third, ahead of Schumacher, Button put in a strong race performance. However, Schumacher inevitably recovered for his 10th win in 11 races, while pole-sitter Kimi Raikkonen and Schumacher's Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello stayed ahead of Button, leaving him fourth.
"We are really struggling for grip compared to the Ferraris, and it was like a different race in terms of the way the car was handling," Button said afterward, according to grandprix.com.
The 2005 season was a disaster for BAR. They were disqualified in San Marino and then banned for two races after officials found an illegal fuel compartment in the car. Then they were part of the debacle at the U.S. Grand Prix, where the Michelin cars refused to start the race after high-speed tyre failures earlier in the weekend.
Button scored his first points of the year at the French Grand Prix, where he was fourth (although he was lapped by the winner, Fernando Alonso).
The next race was at Silverstone, and Button qualified third once again. His race pace was no match for the McLarens and Renaults, though, and he finished all alone in fifth, 23 seconds behind Giancarlo Fisichella and 35 seconds ahead of Schumacher.
Honda took over the BAR team for the next three years and Button did not qualify higher than 17th at any of those three British races.
In 2006, he finally won his first race at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but that was one of just three podiums he would score that year (and indeed for the three years he raced under the Honda banner).
At Silverstone, he retired in 2006 and 2008, finishing 10th in 2007.
Before the 2009 season, Honda dropped out of the sport and sold their team to former Benetton and Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn and a group of investors. The team was called Brawn GP and Button won six of the first seven races, aided by the team's innovative double diffuser, which greatly improved the car's downforce.
The eighth race was the British Grand Prix, and Button was the obvious favourite.
Instead, he qualified and finished sixth, 46 seconds behind the dominant Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. Nothing really went wrong for Button, but nothing went particularly right, either. The Brawns struggled to heat their tyres and Button later complained about, "The bloody English weather," per the Telegraph's Tom Cary.
The following year, now with McLaren, Button won two of the first four races of the year and finished second-second-third in the three races before the British Grand Prix.
Again, a podium seemed a strong possibility. And again, the racing gods said, "No!"
Button struggled in qualifying, ending up 14th on the grid. From there, he produced a strong drive but was nipped at the line by Nico Rosberg for the final podium spot. Button finished 0.679 seconds behind the German's Mercedes.
That 2010 race remains the closest he has ever come to the Silverstone podium.
In 2011, there was more heartbreak for the Brit. After qualifying fifth, he looked headed for the top three, but a problem with his wheel nut in the pits caused him to retire when he was sent out without his front right wheel attached.
"I really believe we could have beaten the Red Bulls today. Early on things were looking sweet. I definitely could have beaten [Mark] Webber," who finished third, Button said after the race, according to the Mirror's Byron Young.
"I want to say sorry to all the fans who were cheering us on," he continued. "We wanted to give them something better."
The next year, McLaren won seven races, the same number as world champions Red Bull. At Silverstone, they were uncompetitive, though. Hamilton finished eighth and Button could manage only 10th, starting from 16th on the grid.
In 2013, McLaren was not really competitive anywhere. Button qualified 10th at his home race, finishing 13th.
Last year, powered by the world-beating Mercedes hybrid engine, Button was fourth in Australia and Canada (he was promoted to third in the former, after Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified).
At Silverstone, he qualified a brilliant third in the wet and once again came within one second of third place in the race. But Ricciardo just held him off as he closed in on the final lap.
"One more lap," he told his team over the radio after crossing the line, per F1 Fanatic's transcript.
Later, he elaborated, according to Crash.net, saying, "If I had got DRS on the next lap, if there was one, it would have been easy [to take third], but there you go. It didn't happen, but even so we almost beat two Red Bulls and a Ferrari today."
And that brings us to 2015, where Button's best finish so far is eighth in Monaco. Neither he, nor his team-mate Fernando Alonso, have finished the last two races.
Unfortunately for British fans, there is no reason to be optimistic that Button's sorry Silverstone streak will end next Sunday. It would be a shame if one of the great British talents of this generation ended his career without a podium at his home race, but that may be where this story is headed.
Button will be 36 years old by next year's British Grand Prix—how many does he have left?
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