JANUARY 25, 2002

Button's new manager

JENSON BUTTON has a new manager - but the word on the street is that he is not one of the establishment management names in F1 circles but rather a fairly low-key lawyer called John Byfield. Byfield has been F1 for about 10 years first appearing in 1991 when he was involved with a consortium which bought Leyton House Racing from Akira Akagi. The team was renamed March F1 but did not last for very long before it ran out of money and went into receivership in March 1993.

In 1997 Byfield popped up again as part of an attempt to revive the Pacific F1 team with Malaysian money. That deal never came off.

Byfield has also worked as a legal advisor to a number of F1 people including Bertrand Gachot and Button's former manager David Robertson.