Button: why he's earned the right to stop on his own terms

A wonderfully opportunistic racer, with a deft touch derived from a classical, near-perfect driving style in the mould of a Prost or a Clark, Button should probably possess more than the one world title, 15 wins and eight pole positions that he currently does in the top flight. But it’s possible that it is the unusually high level of adversity (#being-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time) that has stoked an up to now unquentiable fire and sharp competitive level over the years - not that his bulletproof mindset would ever admit as much.

At least four times in his F1 career Button has been forced to run the gauntlet of the summer silly-season without being certain of his fate, and three times he’s had to do it since he’s been racing for McLaren, waiting to see if he is going to be replaced by a younger, less decorated driver. He has always done this with grace. And tellingly, with a fiercely determined in-cockpit response.

Jenson had to wait nine long years to get in title-winning machinery, and even then after coming agonisingly close to F1 oblivion. He displayed admirable loyalty to both Honda and the Brackley-based former-BAR team that ran the factory Honda effort (which is now Mercedes-Benz!) as its competitiveness degraded embarrassingly through 2007 and 2008. He was then left high and dry when the Japanese car maker pulled the plug in the winter of 2008.

It was only when Ross Brawn (and others) stepped in and saved the programme, thus unleashing the Brawn BGP 001 that Honda had been developing through the previous year, that Button got the chance, finally, to show he was a world-beater.

He switched to McLaren on the back of the title he won in 2009, but again has in recent years had to manage uncompetitive machinery as time, that most irrepressable, unreplacable of gifts, burned wistfully and mercilessly away.

Now, faced in his mid-30s with the chance to find out what else he must do with that time, but also accepting that to do this he must forsake the only professional constant he has ever really known as an adult, Button has struck a wily deal with McLaren chief Ron Dennis.

On Saturday last, he announced a two-year extension to his McLaren association that will see him remain an ambassador but step back from a race seat in 2017 in place of Stoffel Vandoorne. But… with the option to come back in 2018 if Fernando Alonso switches teams or quits at the end of his own three-year contract. So a sabbatical with some security. A soft exit.

Not entirely a unique deal either, for McLaren has granted sabbaticals of this nature before, but in the case of Mika Häkkinen it became permanent. Button wouldn’t be the first champion to end his racing days at McLaren - he joins Nigel Mansell, Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda on that particular list.

Only time will measure how JB will stand in the pantheon of F1 champions, and while it would be a big call to place him on the short list of all-time greats, it’s also true that he should, given the right machinery, probably have been a multiple world champion. Perhaps the biggest accolade of all is that two of the fastest there have ever been, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, both cite him as the best they have ever worked with. On his day no one was, and indeed still is, faster.