Last year Mr. Button was touted as Britain's Next World Driving Champion; this year, in lesser equipment, he's another backmarker fighting the second Minardi for 20th place on the grid. And not always winning even that fight, much less the fight against his teammate in equally suspect equipment. What went wrong since Button left Williams? Has he forgotten how to drive? Have the pressures of the spotlight caused him to lose his way? Or could it be that Button has in fact reached exactly the goal he set?

I've spent the last few days diligently reading the History of Jenson Button's F1 Career (all 18 months of it) in Autosport magazine, which could have easily been subtitled The Jenson Button Magazine of Record, such a wealth of material did it provide me. At first I was inclined to accept the "too much, too soon" hypothesis; after all, the boy was only 19 when he got his drive at Williams (narrowly beating out Bruno Junqueira due, I would venture to guess, mainly to a fluke rainstorm that caused Bruno to take his test on a wet track and allowed Button to take his on a dry one).

Bar Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, that is certainly a tender age to be pitchforked into the top level of motorsport and expected to perform with professionals several years your senior. But then by chance, on the back of one of the Button pieces, I came across a one-page article in which Rubens Barrichello discussed his own entry into Formula One at the age of 20, and in contrasting the two young men I found what I believe is my answer.

Cool, suave, stylish. Britain's great new hope takes some time out for a glamourous photoshoot.

"And then," says Rubens candidly, "I went crazy." He ended up breaking his heart and probably damaging his career in the earnest and doomed effort to fulfil his country's expectations of him, but with the wise counsel of his father he realised that "you can't be 40 years old at 20" and that it was in fact his own responsibility to decide what his goal was to be and how he would reach it. So, at a very young age, Rubens with even worse pressure than Button had, determined that his goal was not to become Senna, but to be the best racing driver he could possibly be. And within his abilities and with the opportunities he's had, he has got what he wished for. It seems to me that Jenson Button has interpreted the pressure from his countrymen in quite a different way.

Jenson Button takes a look at his first pay check of 2000, and can't believe his luck!

A telling quote from a friend that the best part about Button's contract with Williams was "Now you'll be on the new game for Playstation II!" is the first hint where his heart really is: in merchandising. From the first day he began to drive for Williams, Button concentrated all his real attention on giving the media the darling he believed it really wanted. At first the stories celebrate him as "just one of the guys", quoting him as saying he would never change - he loved his home in England, he loved his girlfriend, he loved British automobiles, and gee whiz, isn't it great that all you people want to put me on chat shows and on the radio, talk to me for the papers and wow, I'm getting to be in Autosport with all my heroes....

Jenson his the media publicity trail just after getting his Wiliams drive, appearing on British chat shows.

As long as I was considering Button solely in his role as second driver at Williams Grand Prix, I found this attitude very hard to understand, especially in light of the fact that, from the day he was hired, it was common knowledge that he was only in that seat until Sir Frank Williams could find a way to bring Juan Pablo Montoya back from Champ Cars in America, unless Button proved himself the better pilot. And Juan Pablo Montoya was certainly proving himself as a racing driver, not by his antics in the press, but by winning everything on offer B on short ovals, superspeedways, street courses and road courses, including the Indianapolis 500. Juan Pablo was a man whose vocation is racing, with obvious natural talent and the driving flair last seen in one Gilles Villeneuve. And Juan Pablo Montoya knew what his goal was and how he was going to reach it. "I am here," he said over and over, "to drive the car and win for the team."

Out with the old, in with the new. Dumped was Kim Keay (below) and JB went apartment hunting in Monaco with Louise Griffiths (right).

On many occasions the comments came, from Gerhard Berger of BMW as well as from Head and Sir Frank, that perhaps there was too much being written and discussed about Jenson the Playboy and not enough Jenson the Racing Driver, that perhaps he was not taking his work seriously enough ... and the negotiations to bring Montoya back from Champ Cars grew more intense. At first it is said that Montoya will join the team in the 2002 season when his Champ Car contract is up. Suddenly the stories are about how this contract can be bought out and Montoya brought to Williams for 2001. But even with word that an announcement would be made in September at the United States Grand Prix that the deal had been done, Button continues on the course he has set. Surely this should have started alarm bells ringing. But no. Button's results on the track were just good enough to keep his celebrity alive, but nowhere near as good as Montoya's; perhaps he really did believe that somehow the whole Montoya thing was just going to go away, because he did nothing to raise his game.

Button has a good read of the newspaper; an article about himself, perhaps?

To an extent this must be blamed on the car, which is something of an anvil to drive; yet it can't be denied that in equal equipment his teammate is consistently as much as four seconds quicker and has put his car in the points, which Button has not come close to doing in any race this season. And has he learned from this to concentrate on his work and keep from slipping farther down the grid to the ignominy of a testing position next year, if anything? He has not. He has added to his long list of toys a 71-foot yacht, and the formerly fawning press said scathingly, that the berth in Monaco close to Pit Out was "as close to the front of the grid as Button will ever get." Stories are written suggesting that perhaps a guy whose career is slipping away from him should not spend so much time playing about on yachts and having his picture taken on deck with girls; Button's response is "I'm a young guy, what am I supposed to do, stay home and read Shakespeare?"

Jenson ecstatic over his latest purchase, a 71-foot floating bachelor pad, anchored among those of the rich and famous. To glitz or not to glitz, that is the question, eh Jense?

And then it hit me. I was mistaken in the goal that Jenson Button set himself. I had assumed that his ambition was to fulfil the hope of his countrymen for the Next British Driving Champion - or at the least, as Rubens Barrichello has done, to become the best pilot he is capable of being. But I was wrong. Somewhere along the line, it seems that Button has decided to grasp the package and not the gift within; his ambition was not to perfect his vocation on the track, but for the money and fame that, if one is fortunate, attend upon that perfection. In my opinion he chose the wrong end of the stick to grasp: he never figured out that he wasn't hired to be a celebrity who drives a racing car, but a racing driver who might, if he were lucky, have become a celebrity.

He wasn't careful what he wished for. And he got his wish.