What’s next for Jenson Button’s F1 career?

“I have a decision whether I race in F1 next year definitely, and I will make that decision.” 

Predicting Jenson Button’s future has become something of a pastime for journalists and fans in the F1 paddock, the outcome of which is about as clear-cut as tossing a coin. Regardless, it is speculation the man himself has little interest in.

“If I wanted to next year I could [race in F1],” he continues. “I could have a drive next year, but it is whether I want to or not. I don’t know.”

While many may contest that McLaren – or more specifically, Ron Dennis and his team’s influential Bahraini investors – ultimately have the final say on whether he will remain with the team next season, Jenson is firm in his conviction that his future is his and only his business.

Sitting inches away from him there is little reason to doubt he is true to his words. That or he has mastered the poker face.

The latter may well indeed be true. After all, you don’t spend this long in F1 without learning how to hold your cards away from journalists eyeing a sneaky reflection into a racing driver’s psyche. I’ve played for a straight flush and come up bust.
Indeed, though many still remember Jenson’s first steps into F1 with the Williams team back in 2000 – almost an entire ‘Max Verstappen ago’ – it still takes a moment to truly consider the magnitude of achievement in reaching the 300 GP starts landmark at October’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Another season in F1 will see him surpass Michael Schumacher on the all-time list of race starts, while a 2018 deal would give him the chance to overtake Rubens Barrichello to become F1’s most prolific racing driver.

Stats don’t necessarily interest Jenson though and given his current options range from re-signing with McLaren, joining another team or retiring altogether, landmarks aren’t seemingly a factor in the decision-making process. Nevertheless, they have made their indelible, unavoidable mark.

“300 starts… that is a lot of races and it means I have done the same thing for 17 years and my life has been Formula 1 for 17 years. I can’t wake up one morning and go, ‘you know what? I can’t be bothered to go to work today’. You can’t do that in this sport and everything I do, the travel, my life, it is about going to and from grand prix.

“Everything between is either recovery or preparation. It has been a long time and 300 grands prix is a long time in one sport!”

Not that Jenson is allowing himself to get misty-eyed about the past or view it in rose-tinted spectacles. Indeed, while he admittedly laments the passing of the bombastic V10 era and the sheer aerodynamic efficiency of the early 2010, he views bygone eras with fondness rather than longing.

Jenson retains a fondness for the V10 era but the sheer downforce of the McLaren MP4-26 makes the 2011 car his favourite
“I think every driver you ask will say they would rather be driving a V10 engine. The sound was amazing, the power delivery… just felt right. We had a lot more downforce and we also had a lot more tyre grip because of the fighting manufacturers we had at the time.

“In terms of feel I would say the 2011 car [McLaren-Mercedes MP4-26] was a lot of fun. The blown diffuser was pretty awesome in 2011. The engine was at 90 per cent throttle for the whole time around a qualifying lap. The amount of downforce we got from that was spectacular. So for me that was the car that stood out as being pretty awesome.

“But it was just Formula One at that time. It was good times and I think we all miss that, but we are not there right now. There is no point looking back too much.”

I proceed to ask Jenson how he would describe such machinery to the younger generation coming through the ranks… but he isn’t playing.

“It doesn’t matter because they are never going to experience it,” he says matter of fact. “There is no point – let’s look forward, not back.”

If the ‘up and all comers’ can’t reminisce about F1’s former days then they can potentially take inspiration from Jenson’s career, not least the way it has followed a trajectory unlike most given the Briton’s defining moments have come substantially later than his peers.

Indeed, while Jenson was somewhat privileged in that he could scribble such hallowed teams as Williams, Benetton and Renault on his CV in his early seasons, it took 6 years for him to secure that maiden win in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. Another 3 years would bring him that remarkable world title with Brawn, while some feel his runners-up spot to Sebastian Vettel in 2011 marked the peak of his abilities.

That said, it’s also a career that has endured a wildly varying degree of fortune, the career peaks brought by Brawn, McLaren and Honda tempered by the troughs brought by, well, McLaren and Honda.

Jenson retains high hopes for McLaren and Honda despite a disappointing start to its latest collaboratiion
Indeed, there is some irony to be had in the way the bonding of two of F1’s foremost marques – with whom Jenson has enjoyed success with as separate entities – has resulted in a lull in form it is currently struggling to recover from.

On the flip side, Jenson suggests his prior experience makes him better placed to cast judgement on the difficulties and – more importantly – the measures being taken to return to the glory it is better used to.

“They [Honda] are a lot closer than previously because previously the engine manufacturer (Mercedes) worked with other teams and eventually had their own team. That was always going to make it more difficult. Progress is reasonable and each race we have new parts. It is good, but there is still a long way to go. The relationship is very good I think and hopefully it will keep going.”

Viewing F1 as a broader subject, Button is often earmarked for having a more vocal opinion than most about the state of Formula 1, most specifically the regulations and the spectacle, or lack thereof.

Jenson is quick to play down any suggestion he is leading a movement against the F1’s governing bodies though. It is a status assumed by the wider public on the back of an unprecedented ‘open letter’ towards the sport’s stakeholders by the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, which Jenson co-signed, but one he dismisses.

“I think we all understand that Formula One isn’t where we want it to be. But that is why we are having all these rule changes next year. I think the whole sport knows it is not in the right place right now and that is why we have these changes next year.”

Indeed, while he doesn’t give the current era of F1 a ringing endorsement, he is satisfied there is a self-awareness towards the issues being faced and is intrigued at how the much anticipated overhaul in regulations for 2017 will look and act… not least whether it will dent Mercedes’ current dominance of the sport.

“I think I will wait and see what the cars are like next year first,” he continued. “The cars will definitely be nicer to drive and more fun – more grip, more downforce, more physical – which is what we need, and the racing… who knows. There is no reason it should be any worse and the racing is good right now in terms of the fights on the circuit, apart from the leaders.

“Whether anyone can challenge Mercedes is another thing. That is a massive ask for anyone right now because they are so far in front. It all depends on if there is a fight at the front whether people love the sport next year.
Jenson insists his future remains in his control despite the perceived threat to his seat by McLaren protégé Stoffel Vandoorne
It is this ‘future tense’ mentality that convinces you that Jenson is not ‘done’ with F1 yet and if the final decision really does come down to him, it’s hard to believe he won’t be on the grid in 2017 in some form… as a mainstay of the grid since 2000, at the very least it is hard to imagine a Button-less grid in 2017.

For the time being though, while one can reminisce at past glories or gaze ahead at what could be, Jenson views his career in the here and now.

“You can’t change the past, so what’s the point? I don’t know what is going to happen next year or in five or ten years’ time [either]. I don’t look into the future and I don’t look at the past because that doesn’t change who I am or what I do. I live in the moment. That is something I have learnt over the last couple of years…”

Category: Formula One