London, Oct. 19 : New Formula One champion Jenson Button says he once overhead his father John tell his mother Simone: “I don’t think the boy has it.”

He was dozing in the back of their old van in the middle of the night at a service station as he and his dad made the long trip back from a kart race in Scotland to the south of England.

The 12-year-old Button caught the conversation. It hurt, but he never mentioned it to his dad for years, until he was in Formula One.

“I used it as a spur but I didn’t want to embarrass the old man. So, I kept it quiet,” The Daily Express quoted Button, as saying.

Yesterday he proved to the world that he has “it” in world-class quantity when he joined the ranks of Britain’s great drivers like Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill.

“I bought him a kart when he was eight years old to use up some of his energy. After a year, I asked him if he wanted to race for fun or serious. He told me he wanted to be an F1 driver,” recalls dad John Button.

“I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ He kept saying it, and here we are.”

He lived with his dad, a former rally-cross driver, after his parents divorced but his three sisters and mum have been hugely supportive, and have been at races this season.

Friends from his past in Frome, Somerset, are still around regularly and his feet remain firmly on the ground. Button has had to fight for most things. Talent has usually got him through.

John Button summed it up: “Jenson winning the title makes my life complete. If god decides to take me any day now, I will be happy.” (ANI)