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Button targeting second title before retirement

ESPN Staff
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Jenson Button is targeting another championship before he retires © Sutton Images
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Jenson Button wants to make sure he does not retire from Formula One before he is ready and is targeting another title before he finally bows out.

Button signed a three-year contract with McLaren last season that should see him remain in the sport until at least 2014. After seeing drivers such as Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen leave the sport only to return two or three years later, Button is determined to make the right decision.

Asked about retirement by the Daily Mail, Button said: "It's on my mind. In any sport, the trick is to retire at the right time. So many drivers say they look forward to retiring from F1 and they can't wait to live a more leisurely life. After four months away from it, they go stir crazy because they miss the constant buzz.

"To understand the intensity of driving an F1 car, you have to be in it. When you're driving a 750hp machine at 200mph, the noise and the vibrations are incredible. The G-force when you take big corners is like someone trying to rip your head off. You hit the brakes, and it feels as if the skin is being pulled off your body. I sweat so much during a race I lose three litres of fluid.

"The adrenaline is such that my heart is beating 150 to the minute. The experience is like nothing else on earth."

Button said he is targeting a second title before he leaves the sport and would also like to race in London before the end of his career. Talk of a grand prix in London has ramped up in recent months with a PR campaign promoting a race through the centre of the city as well as a race in the Olympic park being accepted among the bids for the future use of the 2012 Games venue.

"I've still got ambitions within F1. Another championship would be a fantastic achievement," Button told the newspaper. "Also, before I retire, I'd love to compete in a London Grand Prix. Bernie Ecclestone is currently driving the idea forward and Boris Johnson seems to be in favour of it.

"I just love the idea of all these F1 cars speeding around London, past iconic landmarks like Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. To win a London Grand Prix would be the greatest possible way for me to bow out."

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