“My Manager Spoke to Christian Horner”: When Jenson Button Almost Gave Away His Sole F1 Title Amidst Brawn’s Existential Crisis

Although Jenson Button won his sole F1 world championship in 2009, things could have been very different had a move to a rival materialized. The Briton has now revealed how his manager spoke to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner about a potential move that was rejected back then.

Button told This Morning as per MotorsportWeek, “I tried to get out of it [the team after Honda withdrew], because the team didn’t look like it was going to exist. So I asked around and my manager spoke to Christian Horner about a drive at his team and the junior team.”

However, Horner refused a move as Red Bull had no spots available. However, the same refusal turned into a blessing in disguise for Button. In the end, Ross Brawn, the then-team principal of the Honda F1 team, acquired the team and rebranded it as Brawn GP, and that’s when the fairytale began.

Brawn won both the Drivers’ as well as the Constructors’ Championship in 2009 with Button and Ruben Barrichello as their two drivers. As for Button, he won his only title in F1 that season when he beat Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to it.

Since Brawn struggled with funding, they could not compete beyond the 2009 campaign. As for Red Bull, it was the start of a historic era of dominance.

Red Bull became a force to reckon with after 2009

Red Bull dominated F1 from 2010 to 2013 by winning both the Drivers’ as well as the Constructors’ Championships in all those years. Sebastian Vettel won all his four titles with Red Bull during this glorious period.

However, things could have been more interesting had the Milton Keynes outfit signed Jenson Button instead of Mark Webber. This is simply because Vettel could have had more to fear by teaming up with a defending champion. Nevertheless, Button moved to McLaren in 2010 instead.

Button had multiple intra-team tussles with Lewis Hamilton in the Woking-based team. However, neither McLaren nor Button was able to pull off what Brawn GP and he did in 2009. All in all, Button’s decision to stick with Ross Brawn and Brawn GP that year truly paid off.