New champ Button will only grow stronger, says Brawn
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Jenson Button will only grow stronger now that he has become Formula One world champion, according to his team boss, Ross Brawn.
"Here's a guy who has never fought for a world championship before, he had a big lead and everyone is chipping away at it," he said after the Briton clinched the title with a race to spare at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.
"He has come through and he is world champion and I think in that circumstance again he is going to be so much stronger," said Brawn, a winner of multiple titles with seven times champion Michael Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari.
Button, talking to reporters in his hotel on Monday, agreed his world had changed.
"Waking up this morning knowing I am the world champion makes me feel very confident for the future," he declared. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future and at the moment I don't care because I'm not thinking about it. I'm thinking about the moment and I'm going to enjoy this moment for a very long time.
"We're racing in two weeks in Abu Dhabi and I obviously want to get a great result there but still, at the moment, I'm not thinking about that.
"But for sure it's going to make you a stronger person because it's what you want to achieve in life," said the 29-year-old.
The Briton will return home on Tuesday to a rapturous welcome, with newspapers acclaiming Britain's 10th world champion, and former champion Damon Hill warned him that it would take time to sink in.
"He's the playboy world champion with the winning smile. I think everyone feels good for it," Hill told BBC radio. "He got accused of not taking it seriously but I think he showed everyone how serious he is inside.
"It's difficult for it to sink in," said the 1996 world champion of his own memories of winning the title. "At first, its just all berserk and you can't really understand what's happening.
"A few days later I was in a hotel room somewhere and I woke up one morning realizing it was all over and I'd done it. I think it all came out then, it was a delayed reaction.
"It's not something that immediately you can adjust to because I think you spend so long striving for this goal that actually seems totally unobtainable," he said.
"In Jenson's case and Lewis (Hamilton)'s case, they started when they were kids ... and they had this goal and once you pass that goal it's very difficult to readjust your mindset to actually putting it in the bank. It can't be taken away."
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