Jenson Button

Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . Button won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Brawn, and won 15 Grands Prix across 18 seasons.

Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. He first drove in F1 with Williams for the 2000 season. The following year, he switched to Benetton, which, at the start of the 2002 season, became the Renault team, and then moved to BAR for the 2003 season. He finished third in the 2004 World Drivers' Championship before falling to ninth in the 2005 championship. BAR was subsequently renamed and became the Honda team for the 2006 season, during which Button won his first Grand Prix at the after 113 races.

Following the withdrawal of Honda from the sport in December 2008, Button was left without a team for the 2009 season. In February 2009, Ross Brawn led a management buyout of Honda, creating Brawn GP and recruiting Button as a driver. Button went on to win a record-equalling six of the first seven races of the 2009 season, securing the Drivers' Championship at the , having led on points all season; his success also helped Brawn GP to secure that year's Constructors' Championship.

At the start of the 2010 season, Button moved to McLaren, partnering fellow British racer Lewis Hamilton. After finishing fifth for the team in 2010, Button ended the 2011 season as runner-up, before falling to fifth in the 2012 championship. Four more seasons with McLaren resulted in no further victories and he retired from Formula One at the end of 2016, making a one-off return at the to deputise for Fernando Alonso. From the 306 races that Button started, he won fifteen, qualified on pole position eight times, took fifty podium finishes and scored 1,235 championship points.

After his F1 career, Button became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT Series alongside Naoki Yamamoto, with whom he shared a Honda racing car at Team Kunimitsu. He also competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing with support from Stewart–Haas Racing and sponsorship from Mobil 1.

Early life and education Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome, Somerset and brought up in nearby Vobster, Mells. He is the fourth child of the half-South African Simone Lyons and former rallycross driver John Button from London's East End, who was well known in the United Kingdom during most of the 1970s for racing his Volkswagen Type 1, which was nicknamed the Colorado Beetle. Jenson's parents met in Newquay at a young age and were reunited after a musical concert at Longleat. According to John, Jenson was named after his Danish friend and rallycross opponent Erling Jensen, changing the "e" to an "o" to differentiate it from Jensen Motors, while Simone recalls that she named him Jenson after noticing a Jensen sports car and thought the change of spelling would be "more mannish".

Button enjoyed racing from an early age, racing a BMX bike with friends after school, and began watching Formula One races with his father around the age of five. He idolised four-time world champion Alain Prost for his calm personality and intellectual approach to driving. After his parents divorced when he was seven, he and his three elder sisters were brought up by their mother in Frome. Button was educated at Vallis First School, Selwood Middle School and Frome Community College. His karting career limited his studying and he left school with one GCSE. Button failed his first driving test for driving between two cars on a narrow road.

Karting career Button's father gave him a 50cc bike for his seventh birthday; he discarded it after half an hour because it lacked speed, which would have required his father to remove its restrictor, His father sold most of his possessions and opened a shop to fund his son's karting career. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship and the title with team Wright Karts. He was the youngest runner-up of the Formula A World Championship at age 15. Button was signed to drive Tecno-Rotax karts for Team GKS, coming fifth in the 1996 European Formula A Championship, third in the Formula A World Cup, and became the youngest driver and first Briton to claim the European Super A Championship. He was signed to businessman David Robertson and Huysman's managerial stable, who found him sponsorship to continue driving. Robertson wanted Button to test a Carlin Motorsport Dallara F3 Mugen-Honda car at the Pembrey Circuit and quickly became acclimated with a more powerful vehicle and extra downforce. Huysman and Robertson wanted Button to enter Formula Three (F3) but Button said he could not do so with his inexperience in car racing and did not want to enter the category for fear of immediately being uncompetitive. Button instead moved to Formula Ford for the 1998 season. He took the British Formula Ford Championship in a Haywood Racing Mygale SJ98 car with nine victories and won the season-ending Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

At the end of 1998, Button won the annual Autosport BRDC Award, which included a test in a McLaren MP4/14 F1 car that he received in November 1999. Amongst more experienced racers, he won three times—at Thruxton, Pembrey and Silverstone—to finish the season as the top rookie driver, and third overall. He finished fifth and second respectively in the Marlboro Masters and Macau Grand Prix, losing out by 0.035 seconds to Darren Manning in Macau. Button was required to decide on his future post-season. He did not want another year in F3 and twice tested a higher-tier Formula 3000 (F3000) car with both the Super Nova Racing and Fortec Motorsport teams at the Jerez circuit in Spain, which he disliked because its sequential gearbox forced him to drive aggressively, and found the cars somewhat heavy.

Formula One career Williams (2000) Button's Williams FW22 at the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.

In November 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at the Silverstone club circuit in a MP4/13 car and impressed team owner Ron Dennis. He also tested for the Prost team at the Circuit de Catalunya after the team owner Alain Prost was impressed by Button's ability and asked him to test.

A vacant race seat became available at the Williams team following the departure of two-time CART champion Alessandro Zanardi. Other contenders for the seat included sports car driver Jörg Müller and Japanese Formula Three champion Darren Manning. The FIA chose to issue him with a super licence regardless. Button worked with a physiotherapist to help build his strength to drive an F1 car.

A sixth-place finish at the season's second race in Brazil made him the youngest driver in history to score a point. In his first six races, he qualified higher than his teammate Ralf Schumacher twice, and was consistently close in pace. A dip in Button's form, combined with Montoya's victory in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, led to Montoya being announced as his replacement midway through the season. Williams chose not to sell Button's contract, keeping the right to recall him in 2003. He went to Benetton Formula on a two-year loan.

Button's best qualification of the season was third place in the at Spa-Francorchamps; and his best result was fourth in the . After concerns about his inexperience, he made a few errors during the season, the most notable coming in the at Monza. Under safety car conditions Button swerved to avoid the pack which had bunched up, and crashed into a barrier. Button finished his debut season in eighth place with twelve points.

Team Enstone (2001–2002) Benetton (2001)

For , Button partnered experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella at Benetton, which had recently been purchased by Renault. His car was very uncompetitive due to a lack of power steering and horsepower to the faster teams coupled with a lack of pre-season testing and he was consistently outperformed by his teammate. He finished seventeenth in the Drivers' Championship with a total of two points scored; his best result was a fifth-place finish at the . Briatore believed Button's inexperience showed as he struggled to help his team set up a competitive car.

Renault (2002)

In , Benetton was re-branded as Renault, and Jarno Trulli joined the team to partner Button. In a bid to improve his public image over the pre-season interval, In late 2001, Briatore invited Button to spend ten days at a ranch in Kenya, Button spent a lot of time working with his engineering team and felt there was an improved understanding between them; Button described himself as "very confident" for the season. He finished the season seventh with fourteen points.

BAR/Honda/Brawn (2003–2009) BAR (2003–2005) 2003 Button faced early hostility from new teammate Villeneuve, who said Button "should be in a boy band" and was not on speaking terms with him. Their relationship did not improve after the first race in Australia: Villeneuve was due to pit, but stayed out an extra lap and made a pit stop when Button was due in, leaving Button waiting in the pit lane while Villeneuve's car was serviced. Villeneuve blamed it on "radio problems", but both Button and Richards hinted that they did not believe him. Button scored eight points in the first six races, including a fourth place at the . His relationship with Villeneuve improved thereafter because of his better performance and said the comments were caused by inter-team changes. A high speed crash for Button during Saturday qualifying in Monaco briefly knocked him unconscious, and he was detained in hospital overnight. Despite the accident Button still wanted to race, but was withdrawn by his team on medical advice. He was cleared to race for the following Grand Prix in Montreal. Button continued to outperform his teammate and this helped rebuild his previously faltering reputation. Just before the final race in Japan, Villeneuve lost his seat at BAR, so Button was partnered with Takuma Sato; he took his second fourth place of the season, and finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with seventeen points. He took his first podium in the second race of the year—third-place at the . He followed it up two weeks later with another third-place in Bahrain. In the next race at Imola, he took his first pole position and finished second behind Michael Schumacher. He took ten podiums in eighteen races, and scored no points in three. The dispute went to F1's Contract Recognition Board, who ruled in favour of BAR on 20 October, forcing Button to stay with the team. He asked his friend Richard Goodard to manage him, and employed a personal assistant in restructuring his organisation.

2005

Despite the feud, Button insisted he had BAR's backing, and was optimistic for the season. He was unable to deal with regulation changes concerning aerodynamics and his car lacked pace as a result. Button was disqualified from third place at the after race scrutineers found his car had a second fuel tank inside the main one, that when drained, made his car underweight. The FIA International Court of Appeal banned Button and his team from the next two races as a result. Following his return, he took the second pole position of his career in Montreal, but crashed out after an error while running third. After the , Button scored in all of the remaining races with two third-place finishes in Germany and Belgium to end the season in ninth place on 37 points. Frank Williams insisted the contract was fully binding, and that there would be "absolutely no turning back"; his team required Button to fulfill some contractual obligations with sponsors. After several weeks of talks, Williams agreed to release Button in exchange for an estimated £18 million in compensation.

Honda (2006–2008)

2006 Button driving the Honda RA106 which he drove to victory at the . BAR was renamed Honda prior to 2006 following a buyout by the Japanese manufacturer and Button was partnered by the experienced Rubens Barrichello. The new team performed well in testing, helped by the extra resources now available from Honda, and Button was confident in the car. He had been frustrated by not converting his increasing experience and confidence in his driving into success in 2005 and was excited about Honda's car and engine development enabling race victory challenges. Button scored points in five of the first eleven races, finishing third at the second round, the , and pole position for the following . The first win of his career was at a rain-affected from a fourteenth position start – the 113th Grand Prix start of his career. Button finished fourth or fifth at each of the next five races and ended the season with a podium finish at the final round in Brazil. Over the last six races of the season, he scored more points (35) than any other driver.

2007

In , Button again drove with Honda alongside Barrichello. He was unable to partake in pre-season testing because of two hairline fractures to his ribs, sustained in a karting incident in late 2006. His Honda RA107 car had an aerodynamic imbalance from lacking grip after Shuhei Nakamoto was appointed Senior Technical Director following the departure of Geoff Willis. His year was worse than in 2006, driving within the middle of the field and usually qualifying outside of the top ten. He scored six points over the course of the season for fifteenth overall with a best finish of fifth at the rain-affected . He was informed of the news by Goodard the day before and Button changed his plans to discuss the withdrawal with colleagues and not the performance of his 2009 car. He declined an offer to drive for Red Bull Racing's junior team Toro Rosso because they would not give him a podium-winning car and they wanted sponsorship funding.

Brawn GP (2009) Brawn purchased the Honda team for a nominal fee and renamed it as Brawn GP in early March 2009. Button signed a contract to drive for the team in , and took a pay cut as part of the agreement. Although he was installed by bookmakers as a 100–1 outsider for the championship, Button's Brawn BGP 001 car was quick and reliable in pre-season testing in Europe due to an efficient aerodynamic package, a powerful Mercedes-Benz V8 engine and grippy slick tyres. The car's seat was lowered to make him comfortable.

Button won six of the first seven races with four pole positions, Once the major teams had introduced their own reconfigured diffusers Button's dominance ended, averaging sixth position in the following ten races and scoring 35 points after accumulating 61 in the first seven. This was due to the team spending 10 per cent of its allocated £7 million budget on developing the car and Button's smooth driving style preventing him from generating heat into its tyres in cold weather. At the , Button was hampered in qualifying by a poor choice of tyres in the wet weather and could achieve 14th position. His championship campaign was boosted by Vettel qualifying 16th, but team-mate and closest rival Barrichello qualified on pole. In the race, Button finished fifth, taking enough points to secure the championship with one round remaining. At the final race of the season, the , Button qualified behind Barrichello again, but finished on the podium in third position.

In the off-season, Brawn and team principal Nick Fry informed Button they wanted him to sign an extension to his contract and be paired with Nico Rosberg. Button asked for a commitment to car development for 2010 and a close to a repeat performance of the 2009 season. Brawn and Fry said Mercedes would buy-out Brawn GP without locating potential sponsors, which Button found unappealing and told his manager Richard Goodard he desired a new challenge.

McLaren (2010–2017)

Goodard telephoned McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh to enquire about a drive for Button. (Whitmarsh noted discord between Button and Brawn from disputes over payment of bonuses from the driver's championship win and spoke to Button about his status after the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.) but Whitmarsh cautioned the two before the start of the season he would observe any relationship problems between them.

2010

Button won at the and the in variable weather to take the lead of the Drivers' Championship. He believed the introduction of Pirelli tyres that season would suit his smooth driving style and said a world championship victory would make it difficult for him to retire from F1. Button began the season by finishing no lower than sixth in the first six races with three podium results. He won the rain-affected after two collisions dropped him to the back of the field and overtaking Vettel when the latter ran wide on the slippery track on the final lap. Button then won the , which was held in similar weather, and the , but his results over the course of the season mathematically eliminated him from championship contention when Vettel took the title in Japan. Button took three victories and twelve podium finishes to finish runner-up with 270 points. Before the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, he signed a three-year extension to his contract with McLaren. Button was satisfied with the new MP4-27 car due to McLaren finding a regulation loophole banning the blowing of exhaust gases over parts of the vehicle to improve downforce. A victory in the season-opening and two-second-place finishes at the and the were the highlights of his first half of the season. His overall performance in the first seven races fell due to difficulty in generating temperature and the correct amount of grip into the new Pirelli short-life front tyres due to his smooth driving style and him switching brake materials multiple times to try and fix the issue made it worse. Button changed the set-up of his car and adapted himself to the tyres to retain temperature for better performance. The rest of Button's season saw him achieve wins in Belgium and Brazil and top-five finishes in five of the next seven rounds for fifth overall with 188 points.

2013

Button was joined at McLaren by Ferrari Driver Academy graduate Sergio Pérez for and their relationship was cooler because the latter entered the team hastily. He was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) in March 2013. After finishing ninth at the season-opening , McLaren introduced components from the MP4-27 onto the MP4-28, which had no significant effect and Button continued to attain sub-par results throughout the season with a best of fourth at the season-ending . He was ninth overall with 73 points. Button was involved in aggressive driving from his teammate Pérez early in the season in Bahrain and Monaco, annoying him.

2014–2015

Button activated the terms of his contract to stay with McLaren for 2014 in September 2013, but considered taking a sabbatical from F1 following the unexpected death of his father in Monaco in January 2014. Button was joined by Kevin Magnussen, with whom he was able to build a rapport, and the MP4-29 car had an understeer from lacking front downforce and an unstable rear. He finished third at the season-opening after Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified for a fuel flow consumption infringement and his team lost a subsequent appeal against the decision. It would turn out to be his final career podium. Button achieved a quartet of fourth-place finishes and scored points seven more times for eighth in the Drivers' Championship and 126 points. Button qualified better than Magnussen ten times and scored twice as many points.

Button became unenthusiastic over F1 and the press speculated on his future in the sport with rumors Alonso would be Magnussen's teammate in . He wanted to remain at McLaren but was made insecure about his career and told himself to concentrate on the present and not be concerned about the future. Dennis did not want Button to drive for McLaren but fellow team shareholder Mansour Ojjeh told him Button should remain over Magnussen after reviewing the situation. Negotiations between Button and McLaren racing director Éric Boullier and team owner Ron Dennis concluded with an agreement for Button to continue racing on 10 December. with his contract containing the option for a second year; McLaren or Button were able to activate clauses to break the contract after the season if one of the parties desired it. (An option for a long-term contract was more complicated for Button because of the team's results from the 2014 season led to debate on each driver's strengths and weaknesses.) Button struggled in 2015 due to an unreliable and an underpowered Honda engine lacking straightline speed, He had considered returning to the Williams team but decided against it. His car's new Honda engine was more powerful and allowed him to challenge for points-scoring finishes but reliability continued to hinder him and McLaren. qualifying a season-high third at the , the highest start for the McLaren-Honda partnership. Button went on to finish the race a season-high sixth. He was unable to finish higher than eighth thereafter and ended his full-time career with a suspension failure at the season-ending . Button took fifteenth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points finishing better than Alonso five times and qualifying higher on four occasions. He suggested Button take a sabbatical and mull over the decision to retire while resting and made Button an ambassador for McLaren. He would work in the team's simulator at MTC, represent them at sponsor functions and attempt to help them in car development. He was replaced as a GPDA director by Romain Grosjean. In April 2017, Boullier asked Button to drive in lieu of the Indianapolis 500-bound Alonso at the and agreed after Goodard told him there was no way to get out of the commitment because he was contractually bound to drive. He prepared in the team's simulator instead of testing in Bahrain because he would learn nothing by not driving on a narrow street circuit. He retired late in the race following a collision with Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein that damaged his car.

In November 2017, Button was replaced as McLaren reserve driver by 2017 FIA Formula 3 European champion Lando Norris for 2018. His contract with McLaren expired without renewal at the end of 2017 allowing him to focus on other racing ventures.

Williams senior advisor (2021–2025) In January 2021, Button rejoined Williams as a senior advisor on a multi-year deal. He assisted their race and Williams Academy drivers on-track and at the team's headquarters and conducted ambassadorial duties for the team. It was expected that Button would focus on the entire team and not one specific department, but he could not enter Williams' premises due to travel restrictions from the United States. Forthwith, COVID-19 protocols restricted his bonding with the team since he was in the Sky Sports broadcasting bubble.

Aston Martin F1 Team Ambassador (2026–present) Ahead of the season, Button joined Aston Martin F1 Team in a team ambassador role on a multi-year deal, supporting their commercial, media, and partner operations.

Super GT career

The Honda NSX-GT that Button and Naoki Yamamoto drove to win the 2018 Super GT title.

Button became interested in Super GT in about 2011, and discussions with Honda led to his series debut at the 2017 Suzuka 1000km in a NSX-GT for Team Mugen with teammates Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima. The trio finished twelfth following two penalties and two tyre punctures. He also considered racing as a third driver for Acura Team Penske's IMSA SportsCar Championship team, but was rejected. Button drove the full 2018 Super GT Series for Team Kunimitsu in the No. 100 GT500-class Honda NSX-GT alongside Naoki Yamamoto; He and Yamamoto won at Sportsland Sugo and took two-second-place finishes to enter the season-ending race at Twin Ring Motegi equal on points with the TOM'S duo of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy. He held off Hirakawa to win the GT500 title by three points and was the first rookie champion since Toranosuke Takagi in 2005.

For the 2019 season, Button remained at Team Kunimitsu alongside Yamamoto in the renumbered No. 1 Honda. In an incident-filled season, Button and Yamamoto were taken out of the lead in the opening round at Okayama, a mistimed safety car at the second Fuji race and a poor tyre choice in the rain at Sugo cost the team possible victories. The pair achieved two podium finishes at both Fuji rounds and a sixth place at Motegi to finish eighth in the GT500 Drivers' Championship with 37 points. In October 2019, he drove the final two races of the season-ending Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) round at the Hockenheimring in his Team Kunimitsu NSX car as Honda's wild card entry. He finished ninth in the first race and 16th in the second. Button did not enter the "Super GT × DTM Dream Race" at Fuji Speedway because his contract did not oblige him to do so, and decided to leave Super GT after 2019 because he did not want to fly frequently from the United States to Japan and wanted to explore other racing series. Button agreed to drive most of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship sharing a BR Engineering BR1 car in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin for SMP Racing. (Button missed the season-opening 2018 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps because of a Super GT commitment.) Making his FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) debut at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, electronic problems dropped the car down the order before the team retired with an engine failure late in the race with Button driving at the time. He finished fourth at the 6 Hours of Fuji and third at the following 6 Hours of Shanghai. Button missed the 1000 Miles of Sebring and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps because of Super GT commitments, and the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans because his fiancée was due to give birth to their first child. He also won the BBC West Country's Sports Personality of the Year and the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award. He won the 2000 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Newcomer Award for finishing eighth in that year's F1 season, the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 2001, and the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy as the most successful British or Commonwealth driver in a season five times: from 2004 to 2006, 2009 and 2011. Button was voted the Autosport Rookie of the Year in 2000, and the British Competition Driver of the Year in 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012. He won the BRDC Gold Star in 2004 and 2009, and was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame in 2017.

Button was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to motorsport. Button's home town, Frome, has named a street and a footbridge over the River Frome after him, and has awarded him the freedom of the town. He has authored five books about his life and career.These include: My Life on The Formula One Rollercoaster (ghostwritten by the journalist David Tremayne in 2002) My World (2007) My Championship Year (2009) Life to The Limit (2017) How to be an F1 Driver (2019)

Personal life Button's hobbies include mountain biking, competing in triathlons and bodyboarding. He also maintains an automobile collection. He married American model Brittny Ward in 2022 with whom he has a son and a daughter. They currently reside in Los Angeles. Button supports Bristol City Football Club.

On 3 August 2015, Button and his then wife Jessica were burgled at a rented Saint-Tropez home while staying with friends when robbers looted the house and stole belongings worth £300,000, including his wife's £250,000 engagement ring. Reports suggested that the couple might have been gassed through the air-conditioning system prior to the burglars' entry into the building.

Karting record

Karting career summary

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results Year Entrant No. Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rank Points 2023 JDC-Miller MotorSports 5 GTP Porsche 963 Porsche 9RD 4.6 L V8 DAY SEB LBH LGA WGL MOS ELK IMS PET 23rd 282 2024 Wayne Taylor Racingwith Andretti Autosport 40 GTP Acura ARX-06 Acura AR24e 2.4 L Turbo V6 DAY SEB LBH LGA DET WGL ELK IMS PET 25th 326