{"id":276417,"date":"2025-11-11T13:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276417\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:47:13","slug":"jenson-button-retiring-from-professional-racing-sadder-than-f1-career-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276417\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenson Button: Retiring from professional racing \u201csadder\u201d than F1 career end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jenson Button says his retirement as a racing driver, following last weekend\u2019s World Endurance Championship finale, is \u201csadder\u201d than his final Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old told <a href=\"http:\/\/crash.net\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crash.net<\/a> during June\u2019s 24 Hours of Le Mans that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/le-mans\/news\/1073149\/1\/jenson-button-admits-2025-likely-my-last-full-year-racing-ahead-le-mans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025 would be his last full-time season in motorsport<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, in the build-up to the WEC season finale at the Bahrain 8 Hours last weekend, Jenson Button announced that he would be stepping away from professional competition for good.<\/p>\n<p>Button made his debut in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> in 2000 with Williams, and served stints with Team Enstone, BAR, Honda, Brawn GP and McLaren, before calling time on his career at the end of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He won the 2009 world title with Brawn GP, after Ross Brawn took over the defunct Honda project in the winter following the Japanese brand\u2019s withdrawal from F1.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Button competed in Super GT full-time in 2018 and 2019, before scaling back to race part-time, taking in sportscars, rallycross and NASCAR.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to full-time competition in 2024 in the WEC with Jota, achieving a best of second this year at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in the Cadillac.<\/p>\n<p>In the No.38 car alongside Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber, Button was 16th in his final race at the Bahrain 8 Hours.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/xpb_1383455_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Jenson Button, Hertz Team Jota, 2025 Bahrain WEC\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Jenson Button, Hertz Team Jota, 2025 Bahrain WEC<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>  \u201cDifferent feeling\u201d to F1 retirement, says Jenson Button<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on his final professional race, Button &#8211; who also serves as a TV pundit for Sky F1 and a Rolex ambassador &#8211; said it had a \u201cdifferent feeling\u201d to his last grand prix as a full-time driver.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis final race was very emotional,\u201d he said in an interview with Rolex that has been passed on to Crash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had a\u00a0very long career in professional racing, and I&#8217;m still enjoying it and happy that I&#8217;m still able to give it my all and be competitive &#8211; even at 45 years old.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut life has become too busy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I retired from Formula 1, it was a different feeling; it was excitement because I knew there were lots of other motorsport categories that I had a chance to compete in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis moment was more emotional, it was sadder, but also great as I&#8217;m able to reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Button also noted that he will still race here and there at classic car events, such as the Goodwood Revival.<\/p>\n<p>In a quote published by the BBC, Button added: \u201cI don&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;ve left anything on the table. I&#8217;m content with what I&#8217;ve achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jenson Button says his retirement as a racing driver, following last weekend\u2019s World Endurance Championship finale, is \u201csadder\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,3765,82],"class_list":["post-276417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jenson-button","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}