Jenson Button can tomorrow be crowned Formula One world champion, but behind every great driver is a great engineer. Motorsports writer Matt Westcott speaks to Andrew Shovlin, a former Teesside student who is now helping to mastermind the British driver’s bid for glory.

IF you have followed Jenson Button’s rollercoaster charge for the Formula One crown this season you will undoubtedly have heard the voice of Andrew Shovlin.

Happier out of the limelight than in it, Shovlin is nevertheless centre stage come race day, for his is the voice you hear when Button’s Brawn GP team pass on vital information in the heat of battle.

Brought up in Kirklevington, near Yarm, Shovlin is the Briton’s race engineer, responsible for coming up with his race plan and, more importantly, helping execute it.

Button leads the championship race and needs just six points from tomorrow’s penultimate round in Brazil to clinch the title.

Despite claiming six wins in the opening seven races of the season, the 29-year-old’s charge has slowed of late and, if he does not achieve his aim at Interlagos, he could find himself pipped to the post by his team-mate and arch-rival Rubens Barrichello, who is 14 points behind.

Like Button, Shovlin’s career has been leading up to this point.

Schooled at Kirklevington after moving to the North- East 25 years ago, he took his GCSE’s and A-levels at Conyers School in Yarm before studying mechanical engineering at Leeds University.

A further three years were needed to gain a PhD in vehicle dynamics, before he got his break in the world of motorsport.

“My first job was with the BAR Formula One team, which I joined in 1998, working in research and development,” he said.

“After a couple of years working at the factory, I moved to the race team and worked as a data engineer. It was in this role that I first worked with Jenson when he joined the team in 2003.”

A year later Shovlin was handed the opportunity to take over as Button’s race engineer and he has been in the role ever since.

“The team name has changed over the years to Honda and now Brawn GP, but it’s very rewarding to be enjoying the success we are now, having been there from the very start,” he said.

Shovlin is a naturally unassuming character and isn’t one to blow his own trumpet, but at this year’s Malaysian Grand Prix, Button dedicated his victory to him, illustrating just how important his role is in the team.

After starting from pole, Button had slipped to fourth by the first corner. He managed to get back to the front by leapfrogging his rivals at the first round of pitstops, and as the rain began to fall he kept his lead thanks to some astute calls from Shovlin and his colleagues before a monsoon saw the race red-flagged.

“I was happy with the car and our pace was good, but the weather really threw the race wide open,” Button said afterwards.

“Choosing the tyres was difficult, but we made the right calls at the right time, particularly when it started raining so hard and so quickly.”

Shovlin played down the comments, preferring to take the diplomatic route.

“Formula One is very much a team sport,” he said. “You are only as strong as your weakest link. My role is clearly quite important, but there are over 40 people who work on our race team and they all have key roles.

“I’m also in the fortunate position of not having to make decisions alone. I am one of two engineers on Jenson’s car and we also have a strategy engineer, who runs simulations throughout the race.”

Referring to team owner and Formula One guru, Ross Brawn, Shovlin added: “If we still can’t make a decision we can turn to Ross, who started motor racing before most of us started school!”

Brawn, who has turned the ashes of the former Honda team into a championshipchallenging outfit in its debut season, is an inspiration for many people, including Shovlin.

“It’s been really interesting working with Ross,” he said.

“He comes with a big reputation, but when you actually get into working with him on a day-by-day basis you realise there’s no magic involved, it’s just common sense engineering, mixed with very good people skills.

“One of my favourite sayings of his is ‘only work with what you can change, don’t worry about anything else’. It’s a useful bit of advice in my particular role.”

Because he has worked with Brawn for a number of years now, the team’s success – eight wins, four second places and two thirds in addition to needing just half a point to claim the constructors’ title – has not come as a great surprise to Shovlin.

“We were not surprised where the car was at the start of the year,” he said. “We were the first team to shift development from the 2008 to the 2009 car and this gave us a useful head start in the early races.

“We also knew that the opposition would be quick to catch up and the fact that the latter part of the year has been tougher was to be expected.

“The bit we weren’t sure of was whether we could get enough of a lead in the early rounds to keep us in control of the championship right to the end.

“At the moment, we need just half a point in the next two races to win the Constructors’ Championship, but we’re not going to relax until it’s a certainty.”

Neither will Button be relaxing, being so close, but yet still so far, from his maiden title.

Shovlin says he has always had faith his driver would produce, despite critics labelling him nothing more than a ‘playboy’ during parts of his career when he failed to live up to his billing.

“We always knew that Jenson had the capacity to win races,” said Shovlin.

“The team has always shown a lot of faith in his ability and he has delivered some fantastic results over his six years with us.

“It’s a difficult situation that he’s in now.

“He’s led the championship from the first lap of the first race and for him it has been about not making mistakes and finishing races, whereas his opposition have had nothing to lose.

“How we handle the next two races will decide whether or not we win the Drivers’ Championship, but with a 14- point lead and two races to go, he is in a very good position.”

If Button doesn’t do enough to stay ahead of the chasing pack tomorrow, there is always Abu Dhabi, the final race of the season, and, like all good strategists, Shovlin is hoping for the best, but planning for the worst.

“We are fully prepared for the title to go to the last round in Abu Dhabi,” he said.

“Jenson’s in a strong position at the moment, but there’s so much you can’t control, like the weather, or other cars crashing, and these factors can always have a big influence on a race.

“We’re hoping to get the job done in Brazil, as after a tough year it would be nice to go to a race without worrying about the championship, but that would be a bit of a luxury.”