Button apologies

BAR Honda's Jenson Button has apologised to his fans following comments he made recently regarding women's suitability for Formula One. Jenson made the comments about women racers to FHM, stating that "one week of the month you wouldn't want to be on the circuit with them, would you? A girl with big boobs would never be comfortable in the car, and the mechanics wouldn't concentrate. Can you imagine strapping her in?"

However, following a surprisingly vocal backlash from his female fans, the driver has now issued a statement apologising for the debacle.
Jenson Button "In that [FHM] article you will see that I talk about Danica Patrick and how great she is on the Indy circuit. I have a huge amount of respect for her, I have a huge amount of respect for anybody competing in motorsport as I know how tough it is, be it women or men. My comments were made in pure jest during a moment of male banter and I sincerely regret that so few words, and more importantly the way in which they were written, have caused anybody any offence. For anybody this has upset, an I hope that is not too many of you, I apologise."

"I just wanted to take this time to address some reports that have been printed in the papers and pieces that have even been on television caused by "comments" I made during an interview with a magazine.

"I have now also seen what is being said about it on my site in the forums, which shows that some people have read the papers and as a result have been offended. I would therefore like to say that comments printed, as I am sure some of your realise, have been taken out of context and written in a way which implies that what has been written is a serious response to women competing in F1, which of course is not the case.

"The article is from FHM and in that article you will see that I talk about Danica Patrick and how great she is on the Indy circuit; I have a huge amount of respect for her, I have a huge amount of respect for anybody competing in motorsport as I know how tough it is, be it women or men.

"My comments were made in pure jest during a moment of male banter, and I sincerely regret that so few words, and more importantly the way in which they were written, have caused anybody any offence.

"The tough thing about interviews is that when you are speaking to someone it's very hard to then imagine how it will sound to someone reading it later on. I guess it's the same as an email or text message; you know how it sounds when you say it i.e. as a joke, but someone might read it completely differently. Something you can be sure I will be thinking of during my next interviews!

"For anybody this has upset, an I hope that is not too many of you, I apologise. Your support means a lot to me and I hope this clears things up.

"Thanks."