Like any F1 driver, he knows that is pure fiction; even the guys struggling at the back are driving flat out It’s the nature of the game. Imagine yourself doing something to your absolute maximum, the very best you can, and how you’d feel knowing that the one thing still holding you back was your equipment rather than your talent Welcome to life for 90 per cent of the guys on the grid. Would your first win get a monkey off your back?
Outwardly, Button’s long face remains calm, but there is a noticeable hint of steel in his voice now, and more than a hint of the inner frustration that has been building all season “That’s bullshit,” he says. “People say all sorts of things like that, and it’s not as if I’m inexperienced at leading races. You don’t suddenly start driving differently in order to win We all know how to do it. In the end, all it takes is one innocent question, and suddenly things get interesting A whole new insight opens up. You would struggle to recall the last time you saw him good and mad.

Even getting Button to ask the questions for once doesn’t do the trick. He has never been particularly demonstrative, nor is he one of nature’s raconteurs. Just one of those pleasant guys who maintains an even demeanour. Perhaps it has just been a very long season already, and it has only just passed its halfway mark. Usually, this is the time and place where the rumours kick off about the following year; this year everything is curiously flat. To begin with, the conversation is desultory, almost strained, and the grain of politeness cannot disguise the fact that Jenson Button has as little to say as his questioners have to ask It is Thursday afternoon at Hockenheim.

He still won.He regards Donington Park as his second home, after Mugello, his home circuit. It is one of his favourite tracks; he has been successful there in 1997 (in 125cc), 1999 (250cc) and in MotoGP in 2000, 2001 and 2002 “Riding the bike at the limit is my passion,” he says. “The taste is different when I win compared to when I arrive second That’s the biggest motivation for me. When that taste is different, maybe it is time to finish.”Racing-bike enthusiasts will be praying that he retains that appetite.. He is always remembered as being somewhat erratic.”It’s true He was quite crazy,” says Rossi Jnr “He always made big mistakes when he raced.

But he’s very important to me, because he gave me the passion to ride bikes. Also, when I first started, he knew a lot of people, and that made it easier for me He’s clever, and always gives me good advice. At the beginning, when I was younger, he would say something but I didn’t hear a lot. But now I listen to him more.”It must still be selective hearing, though Rossi has had the occasional spill, but nothing serious One was at Donington Park in 2002 A head injury put him out for a day. His early mentor was, and still is, his father, Graziano, a works rider who won three grands prix.

In 1982, Rossi Snr was in a coma for three days after a crash at Imola, although that was in a rally car. “To be scared is important; it means you understand the limits. You try to go quite near those limits, but never over them.”He supports the plan to reduce the maximum size of engines from 990 to 900cc in 2007 “For me, it is a good idea. If not, the bikes become too fast, too dangerous,” Rossi says “Every year, the bikes become faster and faster.