As most of you know I am a motorsports fan, and a battle hardened McLaren fan on top. This meant that Jenson Button is quite high on my list of favourite drivers. After his retirement/sabbatical - however, you want to call it - I have had a few moments of sitting in a darkened corner while muttering "I miss Jenson Button." Hence, when I read that Jenson Button was going to publish an autobiography in mid-October I was reasonably excited and off I went to pre-order a copy.
I couldn't wait for the book to arrive. However, then came November and no book had arrived so far. I gave the book dealer - not mentioning any names - a bit more time to get their shit together. Sadly, nothing worked, and two weeks later I hadn't even a rough delivery date yet ... With a heavy heart, I decided to cancel my order. Instead, I went onto amazon and two days later I finally had the book in my hands! Now, we were back to the business of wetting my pants with excitement.
Did the autobiography justify all the hardship and excitement I had attached to it?
The book is split into three parts: In the first one Button begins his story by writing about his childhood and how he slipped into karting. He moves on to how karting just started as something fun and his father had always told him to have fun on track. So Jenson Button quickly rose through the ranks and feed-series' , until eventually his moment to shine arrived: a F1 debut with Williams!
Then the second part deals with Jenson's rise in Formula 1, and of course the fairy-tale of his championship winning year with Brawn GP. The last part moves onto his years with McLaren and rival Lewis Hamilton. Up until the last few years where he begins to explain why he fell out of love with the sport.
I have to unashamedly admit that I love this book! Not only does it give a great insight in what motivated Jenson Button, and what made him the racer he is today, it also gives a small look behind the scenes that you don't get to see: You just won your first ever race, and ASAP your dragged away to attend and go to a sponsorship event in Japan. Then he clears up events that may have been twisted and turned by the media, and talks about his relationship with Hamilton, and other fellow team-mates.
In addition, he added his humour to the book: He talks about wrenched qualifying and in the same sentence how he saw a cute dog on the way back to the hotel which cheered him up. Not only his humour has been written into the book, you can exactly tell when he was bitter, when he was exploding because of joy, or when it was hectic.
The book felt very much like Jenson Button. It was like we were sitting at the pub and he was telling me all of these things in person.
However, what I found confusing was the lack of a timeline. In contrast, Mark Webber's book is split into years - hence you are always aware if you're currently in 2002 or 2009. Since this is missing in Button's book I was sometimes left wandering is he nine years now or 14? Wait is this in 1999 or 2000?" and I actually had to calculate back, or learn from hints that we were in 2001.
A breath of fresh air is that Button always found a nice word to say about pretty much everyone, and especially about his teammates. We all know that the drivers are rival but don't hate each other, even if the media sometimes act like they do.
I can recommend this book for the casual motorsports fan. It is informative, gives you an insight into a racing driver's mind, and it really had me in stitches at a few occasions.
This book is a must for every Jenson Button fan. I promise you, it won't let you down!
| Life To The Limit: My Autobiography | by Jenson Button | |
|---|---|---|
| Published: | 2017 | by Bonnier Books Ltd |
| Pages: | 352 | |
| ISBN: | 978-1911600343 |
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