Jenson Button

Jenson Button set about rebuilding his career in 2003, and a good job he has done of it.

Button headed into the season with the security of knowing that he is on a long-term contract with BAR.

That has enabled him to drive without worrying about his future and he has put in his most convincing season since his debut in 2000.

He shrugged off team-mate Jacques Villeneuve's early-season attempts to unsettle him psychologically and emerged as BAR's more convincing performer.

PERSONAL DATA Born: 19/1/80 Nationality: British Team: BAR First GP: Australia 2000 Best result: 4th 2003 position: 9th Previous teams: Williams, Benetton/Renault

It was exactly what Button needed, for another poor season would have meant he probably had lost all hope of ever getting another drive at a top team.

By the end of 2002, it seemed a long time ago that Button was being feted as the next great driver during his debut season with Williams in 2000.

Since then he has been utterly annihilated by Giancarlo Fisichella and comprehensively outpaced by Jarno Trulli in consecutive seasons at Benetton/Renault.

But some solid performances on the track and a shedding to some degree of his cocksure attitude off it have done him the power of good.

Button, a mature and composed young man, has done well to put the battle of wits with Villeneuve to one side and concentrate on his driving, for it is here that he will be judged - and where he needed to change perceptions of himself.

He has also learned to pay less attention to the frivolous attachments of fame, and more to the job that enabled him to enjoy them.

If he can keep that going, he could yet return to the top of the sport.