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The powers that be at Durrat Al Bahrain must be kicking themselves this weekend having lost out on a major promotional opportunity when they failed to re-sign home-owning Formula One driver Jenson Button to a publicity contract.
The romance of Button's triumphs for the new Brawn team, an outfit that rose from the ashes of the defunct Honda team, have made history with two resounding victories and a third place in the first three races of the F1 season in Australia, Malaysia and China.
As such, the 29-year-old Brit's stock is high and it had been expected that he would again be carrying out promotional duties for Durrat Al Bahrain as part of his visit to the kingdom for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix - particularly since the developer is expected to begin handing over keys to its homes shortly.
Yasser Al Hammadi, communications manager for Durrat Al Bahrain, said: "The publicity contract ended more than a year and a half ago and there are no plans to re-establish it. Jenson is still a home owner and we wish him well."
DRIVERS' championship leading driver Jenson Button bought a 750sq/m deluxe villa at Durrat Al Bahrain, the major development on the south east coast of the island, for BD275,000 in April 2005.
At the time he said the short flight from England, the climate and the welcome extended by local people had tempted him to the kingdom.
In 2006, Button appeared on Bahrain TV to carry out Durrat Al Bahrain's Grand Prize Draw, which had prizes worth $600,000 including a waterfront villa, a speedboat and a Lexus four-wheel drive vehicle.
At the time Durrat chief executive Jassim Al Jowder said: "We are delighted that racing ace Jenson Button, who is a homeowner in Durrat Al Bahrain, will do the honours in giving away the grand prize."
And a year later the development made great capital out of hosting a visit during which Button checked on the progress of his investment.
But since then all has been quiet. Button's racing career appeared to nose-dive and it looked like his F1 career was about to end.
The driver is understood to still have his villa at Durrat Al Bahrain but at the end of last season his racing future and sponsorship potential looked uncertain as the Honda team was put up for sale and a source at the company confirmed earlier this week that the promotional deal had been called off.
The rest, for Button, is history. The Honda team was taken over by Ross Brawn, the former Benetton and Ferrari technical director who was team principal of Honda, and Button stormed into first place in the first race of the season with team-mate Rubens Barrichello coming second.
Button is back on the island this week and thought to be staying at the Banyan Tree Hotel & Spa hoping to continue with this impressive form but it remains to be seen whether his trip will take him to Durrat Al Bahrain for anything other than a site visit.
Families moving into the development are looking forward to meeting their famous neighbour.
Mother-of-three Karen Moir, 42, and her husband, Ian, 43, who works for BMMI, hope to pick up the keys for their new family home and move in within the next two months.
Karen said: "Button's property may not be in the same part of the development as ours but perhaps we'll see him jogging on the beach sometime!"
Button says he is getting used to winning and it looks like the Briton and his Brawn GP team will be amongst the frontrunners again in Bahrain.
He has already scored more points in the first three races of 2009 than in 2007 and 2008 combined, and plans to keep adding to the total.
"It's quite weird how quickly you can get used to being at the front after two pretty poor seasons. When you get on the podium it's not like, 'Oh my god this is the most amazing experience ever'. It's more a case of, 'OK, we've done that one. Let's move on to the next race'.
"In a way that's good, I suppose. If I don't win this weekend it will be a slight disappointment, but you have to remember it's a 17-race championship.
"If you go out to win every race and you end up being disappointed to finish second, third or a little bit worse, I don't think you have the right mentality."
