Jenson Button draws the shutters on racing career: “It feels really good”
Jenson Button has finally parked it for good. The 2009 Formula 1 world champion confirmed he’s retired from professional racing after closing out his World Endurance Championship commitments in 2025 — and he sounds quietly relieved about it.
“It feels really good. Really good,” he told Sky F1, reflecting on a career that stretched across 306 grands prix, 15 F1 victories and that storybook Brawn GP title run. “It was amazing. It was such a ride, such a rollercoaster and journey. But I’ve got a new one now.”
Button hasn’t been a full-time F1 driver since 2016 and made his last F1 start with McLaren at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, a one-off return that felt more like a curtain call than a comeback. From there he fed the itch elsewhere: WEC, GTs, a NASCAR cameo — a sampler platter for a driver who never stopped enjoying the craft. The fun, though, isn’t the same thing as the grind.
“You can’t play anymore with professional racing,” he said. “You have to take it 100 per cent serious. You’re racing against unbelievably talented drivers, young kids that are coming in and putting it on the line every time they go out. I just didn’t have the time to do the homework, so it was time.”
The pandemic years nudged him back toward full-time plans, but ultimately the calendar won. He stepped away from his WEC seat last summer and later confirmed that Bahrain would mark the end of it. He made a point of naming Jota — the team he raced with most recently — as the family-style outfit that gave him the right platform for a farewell. “That’s what I wanted, so to see out my career with them really meant a lot.”
As for what’s next, you’ll be seeing more of him — and hearing more too. The 45-year-old has been a steady, sharp voice on Sky F1 and is set to feature more regularly now that he won’t be juggling helmets and headsets. He’s also kept ties with Williams as an ambassador, a role that suits Button’s low-ego, high-insight style. Expect more Button in your living room on race weekends. As he joked: “And you get to see me more often now. Lucky you!”
If anything defines Button’s time in racing, it’s the unusual peaks. He found the right car at the right moment in 2009 and made it count. He delivered some of the sport’s best wet-weather drives — Montreal 2011 remains the sort of race that gets brought up in pubs and paddocks in equal measure. And he did it all with a disarmingly calm presence in a business that rarely is.
The decision to step away feels like a Button move too: thoughtful, timing-first, no drama. For a generation of fans, he’s the driver who outlasted eras and outsmarted conditions. For the current grid, he’s the champion who knows what the modern workload demands — and knows when the price is too high.
There’s no grand farewell tour here. Just a racer who’s decided the next chapter belongs behind a microphone rather than a visor. And that’s fine. Button always did his best work with a light touch. Now he gets to bring that touch to our screens a little more often.
