Button threatened Brawn over car chassis

Posted on 21/06/2010

Button filed legal action against Brawn to claim his rightful prize © Getty Images

Jenson Button had to file legal action against his former team after they refused to give him the car he drove to victory as a gift, according to the Mail on Sunday.

A clause in Button’s contract stated that he could keep a chassis of his car as a memento if he won the championship. But the team refused to hand over a 2009 Brawn car to Button because there were not enough of the chassis remaining.

Mercedes instead offered to build a replica of the BGP001 car but Button said it would lack the "special and unique" value of owning one of the very cars he drove to the title. Considering that the original chassis are worth in the region of £1 million, the gesture must have seemed akin to being offered a fake Rolex instead of the authentic timepiece.

In the face of legal action, Brawn then said it did in fact have a 2009 Brawn chassis that Button could have. Funny that . . .