Early setbacks help Button cope with current struggles

2015 wasn't exactly the best year for Jenson Button. As well as the break-up of his marriage to Jessica Michibata, it also saw his worst season in Formula One since joining McLaren in 2010 on the back of winning the world championship the previous year.

At one point in the last 12 months it looked as though Button might be ready to walk away from Formula One altogether, a sign of how disenchanted he had become in the sport. But a belated vote of support from the team who confirmed that they wanted to retain him for another season seems to have reenergised the 36-year-old, who says that lessons learned from the setbacks early in his career continue to give him the strength to keep going in today's tough times.

"Going through struggles, it's tough," Button told Autosport this week. "None of us like it, but it's necessary sometimes to come out the other side, learn from it, about who you really are as a driver, but also as a human being.

"It's made a huge difference in my career. It's made me a much stronger person."

Button made his maiden appearance with Williams in Formula One at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, but it was another six years before he finally landed his first win in the sport at the Hungaroring.

"It's very special when you win. I've never seen so many grown men cry as when I first won in 2006, the whole team," he recalled. "When you first win a race, for me it means a lot more because you've worked so hard to get there, and you've gone through the pain and the struggle."

That victory came with the Honda works racing team and Button has been closely identified with the manufacturer for much of his career. However that association came to a sudden end in 2008 when Honda decided to abruptly quit the sport, leaving team principal Ross Brawn doing his best to keep the orphaned team alive the following season.

In what even now seems like it could only happen in a fairytale, that shoestring operation went on to clinch the constructors championship while Button himself won six of the first seven races of the season to power him to the world championship.

Now things have come full circle, and Honda are back in Button's professional life once more - even if the first year of the engine manufacturer's renewed collaboration with Button and with McLaren delivered far less than anyone had been hoping for.

"It was a very difficult season," Button admitted. "But they're so positive, working flat out, and they will make big changes next year, as we will as a team, with the car mechanically and aerodynamically."

"It makes us all realise it's not an easy sport to be involved with," he added. "We need to improve everywhere, and that's exactly what we'll do."

During the brief period of time last year when it looked as if McLaren might allow Button's contract to lapse as a cost-cutting measure, there was the sense that the strength of Button's relationship with Honda made him too important to lose. Button certainly seems to have a better grip that most of what makes the Japanese company tick.

"For a culture like the Japanese culture, it's very difficult for them. Sometimes it can be a big dishonour," he explained. "If you have an issue everyone knows about it and wants to talk about it, and wants to put you down. It's really tough."

This year will be Button's 17th season in the sport and all being well he'll surpass 300 Grand Prix starts in the process before the season finale at Abu Dhabi in November. If this does turn out to be his final year at the pinnacle of motorsport, he - and all his fans - will be hoping that all the struggles and setbacks of the past 12 months will have paid off with a significantly better season for him to end on.

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