How Button's career was almost ended before it began

Jenson Button has revealed that his racing career was almost curtailed before he ever reached Formula 1, but it had nothing to do with his racing talent. The 2009 world champion says a lack of engineering knowledge threatened to cost him a chance to compete professionally.

After success in karting and British Formula Ford and Formula 3, Button made his F1 debut with Williams in 2000, going on to race for Benetton, Renault, Honda, Brawn and McLaren in a 17-year career at the pinnacle of motorsport.

Button entered 309 grands prix, winning 15.

He was crowned world drivers' championship in 2009 with the Brawn GP team, whose solitary campaign in Formula 1 reaped rich rewards.

However, the Briton remembers a time when his top-tier talent was under threat of being hidden.

"I really struggled because you needed to really work with the car, develop the car, and I was not very good at that at all, whereas my team-mate was," he said of his early years in the sport.

"It almost ended my career being bad at engineering and not having any understanding of a racing car.

"I knew how to drive a racing car quickly, but if I couldn't adjust that racing car to put it into a competitive state before I drove it, it doesn't matter how good you are as a driver.

"You just think your talent is enough as a racing driver, but it never is."

Button was speaking at the Formula Student competition, which sees 3,000 engineering students from across the world compete to make the best single-seater racer.