Reaction: Button and Brawn, F1 champions

Source : www.crash.net

The motorsport world reacts to Jenson Button and Brawn GP securing the 2009 F1 titles

Jenson Button:
Today was the best race that I've driven in my career and I'm really going to enjoy this moment. For the team to win the Constructors' and the Drivers Championships here is just fantastic and they deserve it so very much after all the difficult times that we all went through over the winter. This season has been a rollercoaster ride from the elation of the wins at the start to the hard graft in the second half of the season which has seen us grind out the results needed to take the titles.

We have to say a huge thank you to Norbert Haug and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines for all of the support that they have given us over the year. Without their commitment and faith in the team, and the fantastic engine that they have provided, we would not have been able to achieve the success that we have today.

The list of people that I have to thank personally is too long to mention but they all know who they are and how much their support has meant to me over the years. To everyone back at the factory in Brackley, thank you for all of your hard work and for producing such a fantastic car. It's going to take a while to sink in but for now I'm just reveling in the achievement of a lifelong dream. It's going to be one hell of a party tonight!

Ross Brawn, team principal:
What a day! I am so incredibly proud of the team and our drivers and it's so very special to have won the Constructors' and the Drivers' Championships in our first year as Brawn GP. The second half of the year has been tough after such a successful start but getting the results in the difficult times is what counts in a Championship season.

It's really going to take a while for what we have achieved today to sink in. Jenson is a fantastic racer and he had a great race today, particularly after such a difficult qualifying yesterday. He knew what he had to do and did just that and is a very deserving World Champion. Rubens has made a fantastic contribution to this season without which we could not have won the Constructors' Championship today.

The spirit in which our two drivers have fought for the Championship makes me very proud. They have been a credit to the team and our sport. The work and the commitment that the team showed over the winter and throughout this season really has been sensational. We would like to take this opportunity to say our thanks to Mercedes-Benz who have been a fantastic partner for our team and have integrated incredibly well this season. Their contribution to our success, and the support of McLaren gave us over the winter and at beginning of season, has enabled us to be in the position that we are in today.

I hope that everyone at the factory in Brackley and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brackley, is very proud of what we have achieved today. I also want to thank everyone who has worked with the team over the years that couldn't be with us this season as we had to resize the team at the start of the season. My sincere thanks go out to them because they worked so hard and should feel a part of our success.

Rubens Barrichello:
It has truly been an amazing year when you consider the situation that we were in just before the start of the season. I'm truly pleased for Jenson as a friend and he is a great champion. We have a fantastic relationship working together and that has really shown through this year. Well done to him. It was a true fight and I fought really hard but he really won it in the first half of the season. The team have been superb this year and they thoroughly deserve to win both the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships today. We're going to have a great night together and I'm pleased to have played my part in securing the Constructors' title for the team.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing:
Congratulations to Jenson and Brawn, I think they did the best job this year.

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing:
Congratulations to Jenson on becoming World Champion, he's been a great competitor this year and also to the Brawn team on winning the Constructors' Championship.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren:
On behalf of all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, I'd like to offer our congratulations to Jenson, to Ross, to Nick and to the entire Brawn team for winning the drivers' and constructors' world championships this afternoon – and to Mercedes-Benz, too, who supplied their winning engines. Jenson fully deserves his success – although I'd like to make clear that both Rubens and Sebastian would also have been worthy champions, had things played out differently.

Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz:
I would like to congratulate, on behalf of Mercedes-Benz, Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning both Formula 1 world championships today. Ten months ago these guys were in danger of having no future in Formula 1. Today, they all achieved the biggest reward possible for all their hard work and effort. Well done Ross and Nick and everybody at Brawn GP – you wrote a fairytale story this season. I also would like to express my sincere compliments to all our engine people at Brixworth and Stuttgart – Mercedes-Benz powered two times in a row the world champion!

I would like to say sorry to Rubens and Sebastian who today needed to give up their fierce plans of winning the world championship – but I am sure both of them see, like all of us, in Jenson Button a worthy successor to Lewis Hamilton as F1 world champion.

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari:
On behalf of the entire team, I want to congratulate Jenson Button and Brawn GP for winning both world championships today. I am particularly pleased for an old friend like Ross.

Vijay Mallya, Force India:
Congratulations to Jenson Button and Brawn GP for winning their first-ever world titles. Their performance this season has been quite staggering and they thoroughly deserve this success.

Colin Hilton, Motor Sports Association:
Jenson has done a fantastic job this year and we are all delighted for him. For those of us who have followed his career as he came through the ranks of UK motor sport, it was always clear that he had the makings of a future world champion. The team have obviously given him the right equipment this year and he has delivered spectacularly.

For Brawn GP to have come so far in last 12 months is also a remarkable achievement and says a great deal about the leadership talents of Ross Brawn and Nick Fry. It also underlines the calibre of the motor sport industry in this country – an area in which Britain clearly leads the world. For the UK to enjoy back-to-back F1 world championships is a wonderful boost for the sport.

On behalf of the whole of British motor sport, I would like to congratulate Jenson on his stunning achievement in becoming Britain's tenth F1 world champion.

Sir Jackie Stewart:
[Jenson] paced himself correctly – he wasn't going to win the race, it was obvious – but at the same time he did it in a calculated, smooth and careful fashion. At the end of the day that's how you win world championships. He did it with quiet dignity as well, even at the time when he was getting battered around on the basis that, after the first seven races of which he won six, there couldn't have been a higher pinnacle to be on – then suddenly there was nothing coming in the way of wins. That must have got to him pretty heavily and he was being well criticised for it, but he kept his dignity, kept his style and came through.

For Ross Brawn to bring not only the world championship of drivers to Jenson but also to win the constructors' world championship in his first year as a constructor is an amazing achievement.

Damon Hill:
Jenson really put his stamp on it. He showed everyone that he was determined to win this one and take it – and wasn't going to have it given to him. It's a very happy story. Jenson's a lovely guy and he's the playboy world champion with the winning smile. I think everyone feels good for him. He got accused of not taking it seriously but I think he showed everyone how serious he is inside.

Niki Lauda:
When you are world champion there is nothing to criticise. He is one of the world champions now and he did a perfect job. He was very conservative in the middle of the season, trying to protect his lead, and he did manage to protect it. He drove a really aggressive perfect race in Brazil, so he can do both sides. You have a really good world champion back in England again.

Eddie Jordan:
The person with the most points on the board is always the worthiest because it's a championship over a very long season and you can't discriminate between who is good at the beginning and who is good at the end — it's the number of points scored. It is arguable that Jenson was far too good at the beginning and, when he was in a very good car, he was probably untouchable. When the car got more tricky to set up, he was less dominant, but I don't think that makes him a less worthy champion.

Bernie Ecclestone:
What a fantastic race, what a fantastic season. In a way I'm sorry the Championship is finished because it's been so dramatic. There was always a big question mark over Jenson but he drove a bloody good race. He answered all the questions and got the job done.

The bottom line is he had a big help at the beginning of the year technically with the car, but Jenson has still done what he had to do and in recent months he has performed to win the World Championship, not to win races.

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister:
I want to send my warmest congratulations to Jenson Button for clinching the Formula 1 drivers' championship today in Brazil, on the same circuit that Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' championship last year. We can be proud that Jenson is the 10th British driver to win the title. His performances over the season with the new Brawn team have excited Formula 1 fans in Britain and across the world, and we look forward to his continuing success in the seasons ahead.