When Jenson Button won the title in 2009 despite F1 broadcasters jokingly trying to curse him ahead of Brazilian GP 

Former F1 world champion Jenson Button went on to win the driver's championship despite Brazilian F1 broadcasters attempting to put a curse on him ahead of the race weekend in 2009. It was a roller coaster of a season for the British driver as heading into the year, he was almost out of a drive after Honda decided to pull back from F1 due to their financial crisis.

After former Ferrari team principal Ross Brawn stepped in and bought the team from Japanese manufacturers and got an engine from Mercedes, the outfit was renamed BrawnGP. The newly-founded team had a fairytale start to the season as Button and Barichello raced ahead in both the championships.

The driver's title was fought between the two BrawnGP drivers with the Brazilian driver Barichello making a late-season comeback to cut down the gap to 14 points with two races remaining.

Heading into the Brazilian GP in Interlagos, the Brazilian broadcasters jokingly attempted to put a curse on Jenson Button as they placed a ladder in his path and have him drive under it ahead of the race weekend.

However, the curse was not entirely successful as Jenson Button won the title in Interlagos after starting from P14 and finishing in P5. Speaking to the media after winning his first (and only) title in 2009, the Brit said (via The Guardian):

"It's really amazing. That was just such an awesome race. I deserve the title after that race! 21 years ago I jumped in a car and I loved winning. I never expected to be world champion in Formula One but I've done it today."

Meanwhile, Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello failed to convert his pole position and finished in P8.

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When Rubens Barrichello's race engineer reflected on his title battle with Jenson Button

Ferrari race coach and former F1 driver Rubens Barrichello's race engineer Jock Clear previously revealed that the Brazilian driver wasn't as ready for the championship when compared to his 2009 teammate Jenson Button.

Speaking on Beyond The Grid podcast in 2021, Clear said:

“When the time came, I think Jenson was more ready. I think Rubens, Rubens probably… wasn’t aware as early as Jenson maybe that it was all looking very strong. This comes back to the drivers’ psychology."

Reflecting on the generational gap between Barrichello, who was 37 at the time, as compared to his decade-younger teammate Button, Clear called it a 'change of guard' between two different generations of drivers.

"This is probably the overlap of the old guard and new guard. If we talk about Max [Verstappen] and Lewis [Hamilton] and Charles [Leclerc]… where again, they’ve taken it to a new level, Michael took it to a new level in the ‘90s and these guys now have taken it to a new level. Rubens was probably the last of that."

After the 2009 season, Jensen Button moved to the Mclaren F1 team where he spent seven seasons until retiring from the sport in 2016, while Rubens Barrichello joined Williams F1 before retiring at the end of the 2011 season.