Stuart Bathgate: F1 rule book opens new chapter for Button

THERE was a time when Jenson Button was little more than a figure of fun. When he seemed set to end his Formula 1 career with a risible record of one solitary victory in 153 Grands Prix. When Button was officially bobbins.

The contention then – more widely held with every passing race – was that the Englishman had never made the most of his talent. As he approached the last few laps of his career, he appeared increasingly attracted by the high life, and less and less worthy of his place in the fast lane.

That time, lest we forget, was little more than a few weeks ago. Button, who turned 29 in January, had long since ceased to be the favourite son of British motorsport enthusiasts.

They had received little or no return for their emotional investment, and in many cases they switched their allegiance to Lewis Hamilton, a driver who could actually fulfil his promise. They saw Button, as they had seen his friend David Coulthard before him, as a party guest who had outstayed his welcome, and was slowly becoming an embarrassment.

Four races into a remarkable world championship season, it's Button who's laughing now. He still has an interest in the party circuit – and the obligatory glamorous girlfriend in Japanese lingerie model Jessica Michibata – but he has also rekindled his enthusiasm for the racing circuit.

Needless to say, there is a lot more to the Englishman's reinvention than a mere desire to prove himself anew. The Jenson Button of this season may be a little bit more switched on mentally than he was over the past two or three years, but the man who has won three out of four races so far in 2009 is essentially the same person who won one out of 153 before this year.

What has changed is the Formula 1 rule book and the ownership of the erstwhile Honda team. New technical specifications drawn up to help teams cut down on their massive budgets have forced designers to work from scratch in some respects, and so far at least the designers at Brawn GP have shown themselves to be several steps ahead of their competitors.

Button has driven well, and in fact he rated his victory in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix as the best performance of his career. But the Brawn car is the crucial ingredient in his success. The fact that his team-mate Rubens Barrichello is second in the drivers' standing, 12 points behind Button, is testament to that. And so are the complaints from other teams.

Led by Ferrari, four teams complained that the Brawn diffuser – a device which enhances the aerodynamism of a car – was illegal. If the Formula 1 court of appeal had agreed, months of work would have been out the window, and Button's victories in Australia and Malaysia would have been null and void. But the court cleared Brawn, and Toyota and Williams, whose cars use similar devices, leaving the other contenders with a lot of work to do if they were to catch up.

They are not there yet. Button was third in Shanghai, the third race of the season, before winning in Bahrain.

The reason Brawn started the season so far ahead of the rest is that, as Honda, they were so far behind last year. With McLaren and Ferrari fighting out the world championship, eventually won for the former team by Hamilton, Honda effectively gave up on their 2008 campaign, and concentrated their efforts on this year's car instead.

Brawn, Honda's technical director, bought the team out, became the principal, and benefited from all that work. The question now is how long Brawn can stay ahead: the next Grand Prix is in Spain on 10 May, and every car is expected to have an array of new gadgets designed in their European factories while the circuit was in Asia.

Brawn said yesterday that provided his technicians could do their stuff, he was confident Button could keep producing the victories. "I've got no doubts about Jenson's ability to win," he declared. "The way he is driving, that part is taken care of.

"It's up to us to produce the performance in the car, do the pit stops, the strategies, and make sure the car is reliable.

"There are quite a lot of new bits," he continued, referring to the impending alterations. "We have had no upgrades for the first four races because there was nothing there. Getting to the first race was as much as we could manage and from there, there has been nothing in the cupboard."

Button has responded well to the hard work and commitment shown by Brawn, and said his current team was the most harmonious he had worked with. "The winter was very difficult for him (Brawn], but I've believed in him, as everyone else has in the team, and stuck by him," Button said.

"He is a proper leader and he's turned the team into a tight unit, which is what you need in Formula 1, and I've never had that before. There is a great atmosphere, as we proved yesterday, because as one team we did a great job."

Thanks to that team, Button is experiencing afresh the pleasure to be derived from victory. After a period in which sceptics suggested he had become more interested in the post-race socialising than in the driving itself, the Englishman has rediscovered his hunger for success on the track.

"Every race is exciting, and if you can stand on the top step afterwards, then it's exhilarating," he added. "But if I don't win a race, for example in Shanghai, I was happy to finish on the podium.

"But then when you've won a few races, the win is all that will do, and it's the same for all of us. We're all racing drivers. We all want to win the race."