Book Review: How to be an F1 Driver by Jenson Button

As the F1 2020 season goes into temporary e-sports racing during COVID lockdown, I see 2009 champion Jenson Button made his McLaren comeback at the virtual Australian GP this weekend! In these challenging COVID stay at home times, I feel that F1 books are now are a more important source of re-living the sport’s classic battles and an alternate (temporary) fix for F1 junkies. I’ve also always found Jenson Button’s various autobiography books to be good reads – his latest book “How to be an F1 Driver” is a mix of conversational F1 topics including car setup and also thoughts on his life post-F1 including moving to the US and sports car racing.

The chapters in this book do jump around a bit. From the opening chapters on Jenson’s anti-climactic recall to the 2017 Monaco GP to fill in for Fernando, to 12 essential traits of a successful driver, the perks and money trappings of a F1 lifestyle, to the technical aspects of driving (aero, braking, overtaking, pit stops, weather), Baja truck racing, jumping back to engineering aspects like wings, tyres and wind tunnel, downforce, simulator testing.

The photography is a little sparse – it really is only 8 centre pages of various colour photos.

To be honest, this book is probably 60% about F1 and the other 40% is Jenson’s life after F1 – so if you’re not particularly a Jenson Button fan, you might only be find F1 related content interesting. I still rate Jenson’s previous books “My Championship Year” and “Life to the Limit” as better than this latest one, only because the F1 content is less than the book’s title would suggest. The post-F1 related chapters look at his recent sportscar stints in Japan and Le Mans preparations and adapting to F1 broadcast commentary with Sky.

Much of the early press coverage around this book concerned Jenson’s first admissions of anxiety attacks. There are other chapters with the usual Button honesty like his indulgence in expensive motorhome and yacht in the earlier part of his career.

Wow Factor/Money shot: As a purist, Jenson’s personal views of driving technique, diet and conditioning (much like the classic Ayrton Senna’s Principles of Race Driving) but other readers might find the more salacious chapters like “Faces & Places” more interesting.

Suitable for: Jenson fans