The likeable and highly popular grand prix veteran Jenson Button’s Formula One race career will come to a close after the final season showdown in Abu Dhabi. Or will it?
The McLaren driver, the 2009 world champion, but not a winner for the last four years in his faded force of a team that was once all conquering, revealed his retirement plans a couple of weeks back.
Then added a proviso that he could possibly ... maybe … perhaps … give it another go in 2018 when he would be 38 years of age — depending on how he, and McLaren, react to his upcoming sabbatical riding on the back of a two-year, well-funded retainer.
He heads for race number 304 with, I have no doubt, a vast, worldwide fan base bidding him a well-earned fond farewell after a 16-year career of honest-to-goodness effort and I would confidently suggest not an enemy anywhere along pit lane. Ever…..
There is absolutely no chance of Jenson Alexander Lyon Button in car number 22 adding to his tally of 15 GP wins or even improving on his 50 podium placings, eight pole positions and fastest laps, in what is sadly a flop of a vastly under-performing car since the team’s tie-up with Japanese engine giants Honda.
Not that the car’s disastrous ineptitude and regular habitation down among the also-rans will hold him back from giving it his best shot. He might be cited as the guilty non-trier if it was only him that has slipped down the rankings — but, despite his brilliant ability, the same fate has befallen double champion Fernando Alonso, the Spanish flyer now grounded.
In a much-welcomed stopover at the McLaren HQ near London, the Monaco-based and ultra-fit looking Button revealed his quit intentions after seven years with the team and added: “Next year I’ll be an ambassador for McLaren. So I will be at races, not all of them. I will spend time around the team and I’ll be working here on the simulator trying to help develop the car as best I can.
“I believe this will be an interesting stepback and see what I have missed for so many years. There will be things I will learn that I can put to good use for 2018 — and things I have learned over the years that I can pass onto to help the team next season.
“For me, having the free time is what I need in my life right now. I’ll be able to spend more time with my family and friends. I might race something. Cars? I’m not sure. Plenty of cycling. Serious, challenging stuff. And I will do triathlons and, hopefully, qualify for the Ironman World Championships …. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and then a 13.1 mile run.
“One thing is sure if … If …. If … I do race cars in F1 again in 2018 I will be even fitter than I am right now. That’s a promise to myself and the team and all my supporters.
“The reason I want this break is because I live by Bernie Ecclestone’s schedule. It is what I have done all my grown-up life and I don’t want to do that any more — especially not next year.
“I don’t want to be in a position where I have to go to every race because if I was doing that I would be wanting to drive the car. Yeah, I might still make some grand prix trips, but no more than four or five. It could even be that I could do some TV. But I don’t want to make myself a slave to following a set calendar. And that’s the reason for my change and my exit.
“It is only worth being on the grid all the time if you are in a potentially winning car but to be eighth or ninth or lower with the change of regs coming up for 2017 is no fun. We have a massive test programme next year …. 25 days … so the team might ask me to drive at some point to get my feedback and ideas. But also to keep to me in race trim in case they need me to jump in if either Fernando or Stoffel Vandoome, the brilliantly gifted lad taking my place, is out of action.”
Jenson scuttled rumours that he could be on the brink of a return to Williams, his starter point in F1, or even to link up with Force India, but he stressed: “They have their own objectives and see a long-term future with a driver, and both of them could do well, but I do not want to race next year.”
He reveals: “I went to Ron Dennis’s office and told him I didn’t want to race next year. He asked me to give my decision a couple of more weeks, come back and talk about it. But I told him there was no point in doing that because it was my feeling right then and there and that I’d had weeks to think it over., And I told him I needed to start my life basically.”
McLaren’s long-serving mastermind Dennis, who had come close to offloading Button, asked Jenson to take a year off and see how he felt in 2018. “When you come back you’ll be even better than you are now. Michael Schumacher’s done it. Mikka Haakinen, too. And Alain Prost,” said Dennis.
But not even historically rare words of warmth and praise from Dennis could tempt Jenson to go back on his decision to pull out … and his mantra is “Goodbye Grand Prix racing” late Sunday afternoon.
“I need time with my family. It has all flown by too quickly and the kids in my family have all grown up. I have a niece who is 31 has five children. I can also do stuff I haven’t done for 17 years like driving a rallycross car, compete in the ‘Ironman’ and travel the world on my own terms and see places I want to see rather those that fit onto the F1 schedule. And the idea of being at home, waking up in my own bed, living a normal unflustered life at my own pace, are treats I can’t wait to enjoy.”
Enjoyment is an apt word. It is what we have had from Jenson in generous and selfless supply. We will miss him …
— The writer is a motorsports expert
Fact box
Name: Jenson Button
Team: McLaren
Age: 36
Country: United Kingdom
Podiums: 50
Grands Prix entered: 307
World Championships: 1 (2009)
Wins: 15
Pole Positions: 8
Career Points: 1,235
Fastest laps: 8
