{"id":3905,"date":"2018-01-20T13:04:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T13:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2018-01-20T13:04:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T13:04:23","slug":"jenson-button-life-to-the-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/01\/20\/jenson-button-life-to-the-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenson Button \u2014 Life To The Limit"},"content":{"rendered":"
Finished reading Jenson Button\u2019s autobiography<\/a> this week. It\u2019s very well-written, honest, and he has a great \u2018voice\u2019. I remember watching his first season in F1 with Williams where he seemed to come from nowhere and now here we are, all of a sudden at the other end of his career.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Having watched F1 since the early 1990s a revelation for me was that F1 cars need to keep greater<\/em> speed through corners in order to sustain or increase their grip on the circuit. I have always known that the cars have mechanical grip (through the tyres) and aerodynamic grip (through the wings pushing the car onto the track) but I had never made the connection with cornering speed. Jenson said that this was the biggest change from karts and other cars with little or no aerodynamics and it must be quite a thing to get your head around when you start to drive these bigger cars.<\/p>\n

Other notable highlights were that he has driven with three<\/em> of the Verstappens:<\/p>\n

\n I\u2019d joined Paul\u2019s team, GKS, in 1995 when I moved into Formula A. It was a great team, where I found myself temporary teammates with Sophie Kumpen, who was dating Jos Verstappen and two years later had a baby with him. In other words, I raced with Max Verstappen\u2019s mum, which is one of those things, like policemen getting younger, that you try not to think about.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026and that he really has been in F1 for a long time:<\/p>\n

\n I was introduced to a dozen or so big names in the sport, including Patrick Head, Frank Williams and even Keke Rosberg, who used to be my dad\u2019s favourite driver back in the day. Keke had his son Nico with him, who\u2019s five years younger than me but was acting even younger that day. He was pulling at his dad\u2019s arm as we were talking, trying to pull him away. I remember looking down at him, silently cursing him for messing up my introduction to Keke, thinking, \u2018God, just leave us alone.\u2019\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019re into F1 this is worth picking up.<\/p><\/div>\n

Finished reading Jenson Button\u2019s autobiography this week. It\u2019s very well-written, honest, and he has a great \u2018voice\u2019. I remember watching his first season in F1 with Williams where he seemed to come from nowhere and now here we are, all of a sudden at the other end of his career. Having watched F1 since the […]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-books","7":"category-sport","8":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":230,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2006\/08\/06\/jenson-button-wins-in-hungary\/","url_meta":{"origin":3905,"position":0},"title":"Jenson Button wins in Hungary!","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"6 August 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fantastic stuff - Jenson Button has broken his duck and had the first win of his Formula One career in Hungary. It was an absolutely brilliant race, the best one I've seen for ages, with wet weather, lots of overtaking and some big crashes and mistakes. I don't think this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sport"","block_context":{"text":"Sport","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/sport\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/65\/207997604_4a494d2264_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3806,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2017\/10\/27\/f1-truly-astonishing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3905,"position":1},"title":"F1: Truly astonishing","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"27 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Started reading Total Competition by Ross Brawn and Adam Parr. Early on in the book he gives an explanation of why Formula One cars are so incredible; it's not just outright speed, it's also how quickly they accelerate, brake and the extreme downforce and drag the aerodynamics generate. Fascinating. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13588,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2026\/03\/16\/on-the-new-formula-1-regulations\/","url_meta":{"origin":3905,"position":2},"title":"\ud83c\udfce\ufe0f On the new Formula 1 regulations","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"16 March 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Having watched this weekend\u2019s Chinese Grand Prix, I have to say that I am loving this version of Formula 1. There is a narrative that the racing is \u2018fake\u2019 due to the 50\/50 internal combustion engine\/battery split and the existence of an electricity boost button. But I will take watching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sport"","block_context":{"text":"Sport","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/sport\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2005\/06\/11\/button-takes-pole-in-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":3905,"position":3},"title":"Button takes pole in Canada!","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"11 June 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Unbelievable! I didn't manage to catch the qualifying, but I can't wait for tomorrow's race. It'll be on ITV1 from 17:00 with the race starting at 18:00. Schumacher has also qualified much higher than he has done in recent races, so I'm hoping that it'll be edge-of-the-seat stuff. It's been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sport"","block_context":{"text":"Sport","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/sport\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3925,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/01\/22\/3925\/","url_meta":{"origin":3905,"position":4},"title":"Enjoyed Face to Face with\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"22 January 2018","format":"status","excerpt":"Enjoyed Face to Face with Stirling Moss. Just a pure, straightforward, candid interview. Amazing to hear how he could be asked to test-drive competitor F1 cars and charge them a fee for his troubles. 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