Jenson Button confirmed on Wednesday that he will end his professional racing career after the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November, the season finale of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The 45-year-old British driver famously won the Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship during Brawn GP’s fairytale 2009 season. Button switched to sports car racing after retiring from F1 in 2016 and spent the past two seasons with Hertz Team Jota in the WEC’s Hypercar class.
Button still enjoyed racing, but he could no longer deal with the all-consuming exertion of a top-class endurance program. He was no stranger to the circuit after leaving F1. Button raced in Japanese Super GT for two seasons with Team Kunimitsu. He briefly became a NASCAR track racer while working with the Garage 56 program and racing a modified Cup Series Camaro stock car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Button explained why now was the time to retire an interview with BBC Radio Somerset:
“I have really enjoyed my time with Jota in the WEC, but my life has become far too busy and it is not fair to the team or to myself to go into 2026 and think I will have enough time for it.”
“My kids are four and six and you’re gone for a week and you miss so much, you can’t get it back this time. I feel like I’ve missed a lot over the years. That was fine because I knew that would happen, but I’m not willing to do that for another season.”
Button was Britain’s first young F1 weapon of the 21st century
Britain is not usually a country desperate for young F1 talent, especially with George Russell, Lando Norris and Oliver Bearman looking set for long careers in the world championship. At the turn of the 21st century, Button was the new hotshot in the Grand Prix paddock. He rose through the ranks and reached Formula 1 in his third racing season at the age of 20. The 1998 British Formula Ford champion switched to Williams in 2000, replacing two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi.
Despite becoming the youngest ever points scorer in F1, Williams announced mid-season that Button would be replaced by another CART champion, Juan Pablo Montoya. However, Sir Frank did not terminate Button’s contract. He was loaned to Benetton, where team boss Flavio Briatore branded the British driver a ‘playboy’ to maneuver his chosen prodigy, Fernando Alonso, into the team.
Button saw the highs and lows of racing at Brackley
BAR-Honda would be the next and most consequential stop in Button’s F1 career after joining the team in 2003. He would finish third in the championship after taking ten podium finishes throughout the 18-race season. However, his first victory would come in the wet 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, after BAR became the Honda factory team. Honda would leave F1 in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, selling the company to team boss Ross Brawn for one British pound.
Brawn GP arrived at the 2009 pre-season testing with a dominant white and neon yellow machine. The rest was history. Button and his unsponsored car won six of the first seven races on their way to winning the world championship. Mercedes would take over Brawn GP while the reigning champion joined McLaren to team up with Lewis Hamilton and eventually Fernando Alonso. Button’s last F1 appearance would be in Monaco in 2017, replacing Alonso while racing in the Indianapolis 500. In one of his final acts, he jokingly threatened to pee in the Spaniard’s seat, fourteen years after stealing his seat at Renault. I hope Jenson has as much fun in retirement as he did while racing.
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