There’s a boy racer in a baseball cap doing laps of the Blue­water shopping centre. He’s tearing around in a Mercedes at speeds of up to 100mph in front of crowds of shoppers and mothers with babies. The police have arrived, but strangely they don’t seem concerned. In fact they are joining in the laughter and applause. I can see all this very clearly because I’m in the passenger seat of the Mercedes, trying to interview Jenson Button, who is at the wheel.

About 35,000 people have ventured out on a grey day in Kent to stand on the rooftops of concrete car parks and line the access road to the shops. It’s only 48 hours since Button crossed the finish line in fifth place in São Paulo, Brazil, clinching the Formula One world championship title and the constructors’ title for his Brawn team.

The turnout is impressive, but then so is his achievement. His six wins out of seven races at the start of the season have been equalled by only two other drivers: Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark. For Button, the significance doesn’t yet seem to have sunk in; right now he’s enjoying squeezing every bit of speed he can from the V8 engine of the E 63 AMG as he roars round the makeshift circuit.

“We may have to back off a bit to stop the brakes over­heating,” he says, as he clips a hay bale and swerves through an under­ground car park, wreathed in tyre smoke.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” he enthuses. “It’s amazing. I’m allowed to play with sillily equipped road cars. We got to 100mph just there — round the outer road of Bluewater. Can you believe it?”

Surely he can’t be having fun. After his marathon grand prix drive and an 11-hour flight from Brazil, he must be exhausted.

“I’m pretty tired but my reactions are still there — I hope,” he says.

For the best part of a decade Button has been the nearly man of British ­motor racing. His successes were outnumbered by his flops and his career was more chequered than a finishing-line flag. When his team, Honda, abruptly quit F1 racing late last year it looked as though he might be forced to quit too. But he was signed by Ross Brawn — Honda’s team principal, who set up his own team when the Japanese company pulled out — and suddenly he found his mojo (not to mention a decent car). Race ­after race brought a podium finish. Almost overnight he went from close-to-zero to nation­al hero.

Last week’s victorious homecoming at Bluewater is likely to be just the start. His earning potential has ­rocketed, both as a racing driver and

in the lucrative world of celebrity appear­ances and product endorsements. Surely it’s only a matter of time ­before his story is turned into a big-budget film, complete with glamorous girlfriends. So what’s his next move?

“I don’t know what my ambitions are — yet,” he replies. “My goal was to win the world championship in Formula One; that’s every driver’s dream. What happens after here? I don’t know. I’ll know in a few weeks or maybe in a couple of months. But at the moment I’m just going to enjoy this time in my life. I’m not going to start thinking too far ahead and I’m not going to start thinking about what’s next.”

He does confirm that he is flying to Dubai — en route to the season’s final grand prix in Abu Dhabi — to meet Jessica Michibata, his girlfriend, with possibly an important question to ask her.

Explore Features

• Porsche

• BMW

• Mercedes

• Ferrari

• Bentley

• Audi

• Maserati

• Aston Martin

• Jaguar

• VW