Video: Jenson Button drives championship-winning Williams FW08

09th June 2022

Seán Ward

An F1 world champion driving another F1 world champion’s title-winning car flat-out – sounds like a good video, doesn’t it? Well that’s exactly what we have here, with Jenson Button at the wheel of Keke Rosberg’s 1982 championship winner.

Think Jenson Button, you’ll likely think McLaren, the team with which he spent his final years in Formula 1, or Brawn, the one-hit-wonder team that gave him the 2009 F1 championship. But it was Williams that brought him into the sport, and it’s now at Williams where he acts as an advisor, coaching junior drivers, working across the team and doing fun ambassadorial stuff like this.

The 1982 Williams FW08 is a very different beast to the FW22 in which Button made his debut. The former was a ground effect car with a five-speed manual gearbox and 515PS (379kW) 3.0-litre Cosworth DFV V8, the latter had a seven-speed automatic gearbox and an 810PS (604kW) 3.0-litre BMW V10 that revved to 17,500. Still, once a racing driver, always a racing driver – Button jumped into the ‘80s hero and was flying up the Hill at the 2021 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. We’re not envious at all, Jenson.