FEATURE
J
enson Button celebrated the occasion of
his 300th grand prix start with a some of his
driver mates over a beer, at the end of the
first day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix,
at a purpose built pub: the Button and Dog.
The British driver will line up on the grid for
his 300th start on Sunday and McLaren marked
the occasion by building a replica of an English
pub in his honour.
Most of the paddock made a visit during
the course of the day to congratulate Button
on the milestone, including ex-teammate Lewis
Hamilton and Mercedes’ championship leader
Nico Rosberg.
The walls of the Dog and Button were pasted
with images depicting Button’s career at the
pinnacle of the sport, including his 2008 F1 world
championship victory with Brawn GP.
The ‘Button Brewery’ served drinks such
as ‘Ol’ Brawny’, ‘Somerset Scrumper’ and ‘300’
– including matching beer mats and bespoke
mugs.
Button is set to ‘retire’ at the end of this
season, making way for Stoffel Vandoorne to join
Fernando Alonso at the McLaren-Honda outfit.
At the age of 20, Button made his F1 debut
at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix and since then
won a world title in 2009, won 15 races – the first
of which was at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
– and scored 50 podiums.
He started his career with Williams where he
remained for a season, which was followed by a
two year stint at Benetton Renault. He moved to
BAR Honda in 2003. The team became Honda
Racing in 2006, before morphing into Brawn GP
in his championship year of 2009. He moved to
McLaren in 2010.