Button talks

Jenson Button is still on a high after capturing the world championship this year - although he readily confesses the challenge of switching to McLaren has given him a fresh motivation too.

Making his first public appearance of the year at the AUTOSPORT International Show on Saturday, Button was on top form as he received a rapturous reception from the thousands of fans who had turned out to see him.

Taking to the stage, and fielding questions from both the host and the public, Button talked about his title success, the move to McLaren and why his singing is still a major talking point.

Q. I guess that applause still gives you a real buzz, doesn't it?

Jenson Button: Yeah, you can call me world champion all you like. Everyone keeps saying it, and saying, 'oh, I bet that gets boring after a while?' But not really. It is quite nice.

Q. Can we take you back to October 18 and the greatest day of your life? Can you relive a few of the emotions of that day?

JB: It wasn't the easiest weekend. It was Brazil, Sao Paulo GP. Saturday didn't really go to plan. It was raining in qualifying, we were very cautious as you would be in our position... maybe a little bit too cautious. We chose the wrong tyres for the conditions and I qualified down in 14th.

That was a very difficult position to be in. I got to watch qualifying and I got to watch my team-mate qualify on pole for the race in his home country, where the crowd went wild. It was a really difficult situation.

I had to pick myself up on Saturday evening. I was helped a lot by the team and the people around me, and I came in on Sunday morning very focused and really wanting to get it wrapped up in Brazil. To be fair, I must say, the crowd did spur me on, but in a very different way to what you could imagine.

They are very passionate the Brazilian fans, as we are for motorsport, and they were really cheering for their driver Rubens [Barrichello] and really booing for me! But it helped me, it really drove me on. I had to really fight my way through the field to make it happen in Brazil.

It was such a fun race for me. It was a real challenging race and I really had to take the bit between my teeth. I was like a hungry lion I suppose, and it was a fantastic experience and to cross the line and the team say, you are the F1 world champion in 2009 is something I will never forget. I didn't know how to react, so I thought I would sing, 'We are the Champions!'

Q. And how did it go?

JB: It was pretty good actually, if I do say so myself. For some reason the broadcasting quality wasn't very good! But from what I heard it was a pretty good rendition. So I was very happy, I'm going to release an album soon, 'Songs from inside my helmet', and I am looking forward to it.

Q. It was a funny year, wasn't it? The first six or seven races were fantastic, and then it sort of tailed off a bit. Were you concerned?

JB: There were a couple of races, one was Singapore, and also in Japan, where it was very frustrating. After the first seven races we got to some circuits that really didn't suit our car, and I struggled really to get tyre temperature, whereas my team-mate didn't struggle so much. It is a different style of driving, something I really had to work on, and I did get better at through the season

But also, because we were in such a position of leading the championship by quite a few points, we were too cautious. We didn't want anything to go wrong. We were too cautious for the situation, although you can say too cautious and we still ended up winning the championship. I think we should have been a little bit more aggressive with our strategy, and also myself, I should have been more aggressive.

It was a position I had never been in before. It was something I really learned through the season, and it is amazing that you learn so much when you are fighting for a championship - a championship that is so important to you. So it was a very up and down season, and when we got to Brazil, and also a couple of races before Brazil, we realised we started to need to get aggressive again and we really had to fight for this.

It wasn't just going to come to us. The thing is there was some negative publicity for a couple of races, but we never forgot that we had such a lead in the championship. We had a 14 point lead, and that was the worst it ever got before I won the championship, which is massive. The last three years have been won by one or two points, so it was a very strange position to be in knowing you had to be a little conservative and maybe when you are conservative you go too far. It is all a learning curve, and you learn so much when you are in that position, and it means I come back this year so much stronger as an individual - not just as a driver.

Q. But you never once let your head drop – even through the grief with BAR and Honda. You got on with it and kept smiling.

JB: I did, but just not in public. It is so important when you are working with such a big team. If your head drops, then the 700 people that work with you, their heads drop because you are one of the spokesmen for that team. It is quite a lot to have on your shoulders when you are that young. It is a real experience and you do grow up very quickly. I speak not just for myself but every driver who is out there racing for a big team.

It is all positive and negative. You always have positives and negatives through your career - even if you are racing for best team in the world there are always going to be negatives. It is about building on those negatives and taking the positives out of them, and it is what you have to do in a cut-throat sport like F1.

Q. Let's talk about McLaren and 2010. Lewis Hamilton has been there for a few years, and you are going into what is perceived as a scenario that revolves around him. How are you going to approach that?

JB: It is an interesting one because people always say that after you win the world championship, are you really that hungry to achieve that again? I have been working for 21 years to achieve my goal – but yes, I am massively hungry. When I won the world championship in Brazil I was looking for something else. I thought I have achieved what I set out to do, but what do I do now? It is a very strange situation to be in, because you should enjoy the moment but it is very, very difficult to because you are always thinking too far ahead that you have to be careful of.

I knew that moving to a new team and moving to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes would be a real challenge for me, and racing alongside Lewis, but it is a challenge I am so excited about. I am putting so much effort into making this work. This is the most important thing for me at the moment.

Winning the championship with Brawn was great, because we worked so hard for it over many, many years. But now to race for McLaren, a team that has so much history and has achieved so much in F1 is a real privilege for me. And working alongside Lewis, the guy has achieved so much in the sport in such a limited time, he has had some massive ups and downs, and it is my career squashed into two or three years. So, we have a lot of experience there and if we work together we will build a phenomenal race car and have a very good season.

Q. Have you met your side of the garage? How is it going to work?

JB: Each driver in F1 has two main engineers - the race engineer, who you talk to most of the time, and the data engineer, who is pushing keys, but does a lot more than that!

It is always something that is very personal. I worked with my previous engineer for seven years in my career, and I got very close to him. It is very important to get that relationship, so when I first got to McLaren I thought this was going to be a tricky situation. I have been working with my two engineers in the simulator quite a few times.

It is going really well. I am surprised in a good way that we have got to know each other very quickly. McLaren is very lucky because they have a simulator that it not like a computer game. A lot of other teams' simulators are like a computer game but this is close to reality as you are going to get it really. We have been doing a lot of set-up work on the car, testing new tyres and what have you, and they are the guys sat behind me while I am driving. We are talking to them, the whole time, just like in testing. And we have really got to know each other, and understanding each other is very, very important within a team.

You can be the best driver in the world and the best engineer in the world, but if you don't work together, if you don't click, it is never going to work. It has started clicking already, so I am very happy there, and now we can push forward and produce something special.

Q. If you could have your career again, is there anything you would do differently?

JB: It is very easy to say, yes. I would love to forget about the difficult years, and 2008 was a pretty tough year for me, but if I didn't have that season then maybe I would not have won the world championship this year. I would not change anything. I think it makes you the person you are. We all go through difficult times, some much worse than others of course. But it makes you the person you are and makes you a lot stronger.

Q. If you weren't a racing car driver what would you be?

JB: I don't have an answer for that one! The obvious one would be to be a singer – that is the obvious one! Something I would want to be? I don't know really, it is a difficult one. My whole life has been focused on motor racing. I left school at 16, which worked for me, and I started racing. My whole career and whole life has been aimed at F1 and winning in F1.

I don't know. It is something I need to think about for after racing, but not yet. What am I going to do after racing in F1? I don't know. I want to do the Dakar, which would be quite fun, that is on at the moment and I would like to do that. It is something very difficult but outside of motorsport is something I need to think about and something my manager is thinking about right now.

Q. What about Le Mans?

JB: Yeah, that would be okay. If I raced in other formulae it would be because I want to go and have fun. Doing the Dakar, for example, I would want to do it as a privateer, just go there and have fun. It would be such a life experience. If you get into one of the top teams and you are racing for them, it is just so much pressure. I would want to go there and enjoy the race.

Q. How much quicker are you after you shaved?

JB: I don't know! I've only just started shaving! Do you like it? I've trimmed up. I arrived here and thought I was going to be wearing team kit so I thought I would have the cap on, so I didn't get a haircut. So it is a little bit bushy, I must say, but I shaved. I feel a lot younger having shaved.

Q. A quick word about Silverstone, 17 years was the right decision and great news for F1, wasn't it?

JB: For me, I wanted to race in Britain. That was the first thing we wanted to happen. But it is at Silverstone again. It was a sell-out crowd in 2009. It was a pity we did not have a good race there. It was an amazing experience and atmosphere, so great to have the race back there. Hopefully the racing will be fun. There are a few little tweaks to the circuit they are making, so I am looking forward to it. And hopefully you guys will be there again.

Q. What's it like to be a world champion?

JB: That's a really good question and a very difficult one to answer. Wow! I am speechless. You never know what to expect when you are younger and when you work towards something. It was a very emotional moment when I won the world championship, and that evening in Brazil the team had a party. I went to the party for five minutes and that was it – I went back home. I sat on my bed at home for three hours, just thinking about what I had achieved.

It is something I will never forget and I suppose it is a little bit like when you think about racing when you are eight years old. It is all about the racing. It is not about standing here on stage talking to you. I love that, but that is not what went through my mind. It was just about crossing that line and winning the world championship – being the best in the world over 17 races and a very special feeling. That is why I am so hungry to fight for it again this year. I know it is not going to be easy, there are a going to be a lot of challenges, but that is the aim.

Q. Two years ago my daughter and I said you would be world champion? Are you going to be world champion this year, and are you any good on Mario Kart?

JB: Have you said I am going to be world champion this year? Yes, you have? Then it's easy, isn't it! I used to be good at Mario Kart, but I haven't played computer games for a while. I don't actually play computer games, I play Brain Challenge instead! Have you played that before? No? It's fantastic.

Computer games, not for a while. I have many other things to be doing with my time right now.