Former F1 champion Jenson Button visits Singapore for the first time in 7 years and tells AsiaOne how he felt trying zi char and durian, and visiting conserved shophouses in Keong Saik Road. He also shares lessons he has learnt over his F1 journey and plays a game of Singapore trivia with us.
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00:00 Yesterday we went to a very local restaurant,
00:02 and I'm going to pronounce this very wrong,
00:04 but the type of style of food is chicha,
00:06 which was amazing.
00:07 You know, it was great to try something local,
00:10 not just come here and go to a steak restaurant
00:11 or something, so.
00:12 (upbeat music)
00:15 Hi, Asia One, I'm Jenson Button,
00:20 2009 Formula One World Champion.
00:22 I remember us being very excited,
00:29 especially for the first year.
00:30 You know, it was the first time
00:31 that we had had a night race.
00:33 Didn't know what to expect,
00:34 didn't understand how humid it was here.
00:37 I think we were all relieved, really,
00:38 that it was a night race with how hot it is here.
00:40 Loved it, you know, first of all,
00:42 street races are pretty crazy, you know,
00:44 driving a Formula One car around the streets,
00:46 especially in a city, at night, yeah, it blew my mind.
00:49 You know, it's really cool
00:50 'cause you see the brakes glowing red,
00:52 you see the sparks off the car at nighttime.
00:55 It's a real spectacle.
00:57 I really enjoyed my time coming here.
00:59 Loved the racing, but also loved being out of the car
01:01 because we got to go to some great restaurants
01:03 through the years.
01:04 It was kind of a shame
01:06 because you're sort of so focused on racing
01:09 that you don't see enough of your surroundings,
01:11 and it's a big thing with Formula One.
01:13 You arrive, you land at the airport,
01:15 you go to the hotel, you go to the circuit,
01:17 you go back to the hotel, and it's a shame.
01:20 And, you know, it's lovely to come here
01:23 and be on the other side.
01:25 You know, I can still go and watch practice,
01:26 go and watch qualifying,
01:27 but I get to see Singapore from a very different angle,
01:30 which is really exciting.
01:32 And I didn't realize that you could fit so much into a city,
01:35 but there's so much to do here,
01:37 and it's been a really fun couple of days.
01:39 Oh, well, I haven't stopped.
01:44 I landed yesterday morning,
01:45 and I've basically been everywhere for the past two days.
01:48 I was up 5.30 this morning, out and about doing stuff.
01:51 So it's been really good fun.
01:52 One thing that's great, you know,
01:54 you have the old architecture here,
01:56 but you also have a lot of very cool new architecture,
02:00 which is great to see.
02:02 I love old buildings.
02:03 You know, as I said, you know,
02:04 the new architecture is wonderful,
02:06 and some of the design here is second to none.
02:09 But the old buildings are really cool.
02:11 I love the old shutters.
02:12 My wife is actually an interior designer,
02:14 architectural designer, so now I walk around,
02:17 and I purposely look around at buildings and history,
02:20 and it's really interesting
02:21 with the different types of shops that you have.
02:23 A lot of old, small shops,
02:25 but then you have big brands
02:27 that have tried to come into those shops
02:28 and paint them their own colors
02:30 and still keep it very, very cool and old-fashioned,
02:33 which I really like.
02:34 So yeah, it was a lovely experience seeing old Singapore,
02:38 which most people that are in Formula One
02:40 would never get the opportunity to see.
02:43 Food.
02:44 You know, I am a big foodie.
02:46 I've traveled the world,
02:47 gone to some of the best restaurants around the world.
02:49 Yesterday, we went to a very local restaurant,
02:52 and I'm gonna pronounce this very wrong,
02:54 but the type of style of food is chicha,
02:56 which was amazing.
02:57 You know, it was great to try something local,
02:59 not just come here and go to a steak restaurant
03:01 or something, so.
03:02 I have no idea what the names of anything were,
03:04 but it was awesome.
03:06 I really like the flat noodles,
03:08 'cause it's all rice noodles, right?
03:09 That was great.
03:10 We had it with beef and with shrimp or prawns.
03:13 So it was also just cool to have,
03:15 it's like the family-style eating.
03:17 So we went in,
03:17 and we thought you could ask for different sizes of courses,
03:21 but they said, "No, it's one size,
03:22 "and you just need a lot of people."
03:24 So you order lots of different things,
03:26 and you just sat there,
03:26 and there's just a mountain of food in front of you.
03:29 And I don't like wasting things,
03:31 so I ate a lot.
03:32 I left there full,
03:33 and then we went for fruit after,
03:34 but very, very cool.
03:36 Like when I go to Japan,
03:38 I don't go and eat sushi,
03:39 because Japanese don't eat sushi very often.
03:41 I ate a lot of noodles, soba.
03:44 So it's lovely to come to Singapore
03:45 and try the traditional dishes
03:47 that would be eaten daily.
03:49 Really, really cool.
03:50 I like spice as well, so it was perfect.
03:52 And then to try some very special fruit,
03:55 which is definitely a love it or hate it,
03:57 durian, which was a great experience.
03:59 I'm not the biggest fan,
04:00 but I'm all for trying new things.
04:02 It was a great and memorable time of my life
04:07 that I will never, ever forget.
04:09 (laughs)
04:09 Stuck in my memory for good, that one.
04:11 (upbeat music)
04:15 What people probably don't realize,
04:17 if you're a Formula One driver,
04:18 you know, you come into this sport,
04:19 and people must just think,
04:20 "Wow, look how lucky you are.
04:21 "You get to race Formula One cars
04:23 "and travel the world."
04:24 Yeah, massively lucky,
04:25 but the pressure that you've put on yourself to succeed,
04:28 and that's put on you from outside,
04:30 from the team, sponsors,
04:32 a lot of the drivers don't enjoy it.
04:34 And that's the most difficult thing.
04:36 They come into the sport,
04:37 it's what they've dreamed about their whole lives,
04:39 and they're put under so much pressure
04:41 that you don't get to enjoy
04:43 what should be the best job in the world.
04:45 And I think a lot of the young guys that come in,
04:48 they're worried about their future.
04:49 You know, if they don't have results from the word go,
04:53 are they gonna last for a second season?
04:55 And, you know, if you have one bad season in Formula One
04:57 when you're young,
04:58 maybe that's it,
04:59 and it's game over,
04:59 and you've gotta go and look for another job.
05:01 So there's a lot of pressure put on the drivers
05:04 at a very young age.
05:05 And if they're not given time to grow,
05:09 as not just as a driver,
05:11 but as a human being,
05:12 you know, they're so young,
05:13 they're 20 or younger when they come into the sport.
05:15 I think that that's a pivotal point,
05:18 I think that's something that we should all pay attention to
05:21 of how it's affecting youngsters coming into the sport
05:24 and how it can have a negative effect on them
05:26 if it doesn't go the right way.
05:28 Yeah, you can say,
05:29 "Well, you should be strong enough,
05:30 you should be good enough."
05:31 Yeah, but we all find our peak
05:33 and our good moments
05:34 at very different points in our lives.
05:36 So yeah, I think being 20
05:38 and being thrown into this world,
05:40 the circus, it's very young.
05:43 We all need help in that situation
05:44 and having the support of good people around you
05:47 to help you through that.
05:48 Oh, this is gonna be,
05:52 I'm gonna be terrible.
05:53 Pompelo? Pomelo?
05:59 I actually don't know the look of it,
06:00 so I haven't seen it.
06:02 Does it look like a durian?
06:03 - Yeah.
06:04 - It's spiky.
06:05 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:06 - 13 of 15, which,
06:07 the trouble is they've changed the court numbers this year.
06:10 (laughs)
06:10 - There's a pretty good one, I guess,
06:12 it's a green one.
06:12 - Yeah.
06:13 - It looks like a durian.
06:15 - Really?
06:16 - Yeah.
06:17 - Now I'm gonna look out for it.
06:18 Yeah.
06:19 One is a lion,
06:23 that's the second part of the name.
06:25 And the first part is,
06:27 it's not a lion.
06:28 It's, it's not an elephant.
06:31 It's, is it a whale?
06:33 No.
06:34 - Of course, it's a merlion,
06:35 it's a fish and a lion.
06:37 - Okay, a mermaid lion.
06:39 Mermaids don't exist.
06:40 - You can't say that with our kids watching.
06:43 (laughs)
06:46 - Woo!
06:46 - It was an important government building.
06:49 It's cool, it was the important government building,
06:51 that's what it was.
06:52 See, you told me.
06:53 - Yeah, it's a paradigm.
06:53 It was the old parliament building.
06:55 - Was it?
06:56 Okay.
06:57 Well, the hotel I'm staying in
06:58 was a pretty important building as well.
07:00 And they were telling me all about,
07:01 you know, where the Sands Hotel is and all that.
07:03 That didn't used to exist.
07:05 That's a reclaimed land, I didn't realize.
07:07 So basically where the Fullerton Hotel was,
07:09 the road, that was the coastline.
07:10 That's amazing.
07:12 (upbeat music)
07:14 Don't even know what's on the Australian flag, so.
07:18 No.
07:19 - Fair enough.
07:21 (laughs)
07:22 - Oh, it's like the British flag almost.
07:24 It's like the English flag.
07:25 - Yeah, it is like the English flag.
07:26 - St. George, St. George's Cross.
07:28 - No, it's not that flag.
07:30 - Yeah, I did terrible, but yeah.
07:32 Flags I'm terrible at, so.
07:34 Thank you, hope you enjoyed that.
07:35 See ya.
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