For love or Money?
October 23rd 2009 00:01
After sewing up an unlikely title in Brazil, new champion Jenson and new team Brawn are reportedly squared off in a dispute over pay.
The 29-year-old had been racing on a bite-sized salary, flying economy to the circuits and even washing his own overalls.
It’s fair to note that the world champion bargaining chip is the most valuable, but the strained relationship between Button and Brawn over money is a sad reminder that F1 sporting spirit is still buried under contracts, accountants and the almighty dollar.
Cast the clock back only 10 months ago, and Jenson Button said he stood, shocked, in an airport terminal when he heard the news that his team, Honda, had pulled the plug on their F1 operation.
In 2008, the Briton was so far behind the pack that the only times he met his glory-hoovering compatriot Lewis Hamilton on track was when Lewis' silver Mercedes flashed by to add another lap to Jenson’s race time.
In interviews, Button desperately tried to shake off the ‘playboy’ image that characterised the bulk of his career. He said he would trade in the piles of cash, the Monaco apartment and the 100-foot yacht just to win his first race. Who knows what he was prepared to sacrifice for his first title. Now we know it’s not a lot.
To be fair, Jenson did take a mammoth paycut, however it seemed to be more out of desperation to remain an F1 driver. Honda’s withdrawal was so abrupt that both its contracted drivers, Button and Rubens Barrichello, were unable to find a seat elsewhere. The F1 musical chairs game had stopped, all the seats were taken – and Jenson and Rubens’ chair were taken right from underneath them.
When Ross Brawn eventually stepped in, savior-like, and rescued the team, not a sane soul expected them to lift both world championships several months later. Everybody in the downsized Brackley squad, from machinists to designers to drivers, banded together under Brawn in the sort of romantic, anything-it-takes, mentality that comes with adversity.
It was a beautiful and incredibly timely example of what Formula One tragics call ‘racing spirit’. The sponsor-less white Brawn-Mercedes cars flashing around Valencia in pre-season testing reminded us that underneath F1’s the glitzy, corporate exterior was pure, unadulterated motor-racing soul. When the miracle-baby Brawns dropped jaws by caning the field by more than a second, the
Then, season 2009 played out in dramatic fashion, with Button leading all the way home – despite the mid-year wobbles. Commentators never allowed us to forget the circumstances and gravity of the situation – that a team destined for the dustbin was beating the world on a shoestring. Brawn were no longer a team, but a family – reminiscent of Lotus, Williams and even Ferrari in the early days.
Beyond appealing to the fans – Brawn also appealed to the policymakers, who’s long-running crusade against inflated costs was desperately in need of validation. Brawn was that validation. Here was a team functioning brilliantly and winning on a budget that would account for a sub-department of say, McLaren, Ferrari or Toyota. Max Mosley’s KERS failed miserably as a cost-cutting exercise, but he was at least able to point to Brawn to say ‘this is how it should be done.’ And in a lot of ways, he was right to.
So now we see Button complaining about paying for his travel and laundry not even a week after clutching the trophy that was, until the miracle of Brawn, forever out of reach.
It’s two steps back from the major step forward Button and Brawn had taken towards a universally desired sporting ideal, where the top step of the podium is what matters most, not the top floor of a Monte Carlo apartment block.
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