Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI
Jenson Button will leave Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA at the end of the current FIA World Endurance Championship season, with the 45-year-old indicating he plans to wind down his full-time racing career due to shifting priorities and a desire to spend more time with his family.
Button has been part of JOTA’s Hypercar top-class WEC program for two years, first racing the British squad’s customer Porsche 963 in 2024 and then staying on with the team as it became a factory Cadillac operation.
Together with Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais, he finished second in last weekend’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, which marked his best result in the Hypercar class to date.
He scored one previous podium in WEC, which was a third place as part of SMP Racing’s privateer LMP1 effort during the 6 Hours of Shanghai in 2018.
However, Button confirmed ahead of last weekend’s Interlagos race that he plans to step away from the JOTA Hypercar program at seasons’ end, citing shifting priorities.
“Life has got too busy,” said Button. “There’s so many different things going on.
“It’s about time I start thinking about the future a little bit more. I want to spend more time with my family as well.
“It’s a very busy schedule I have and it’s unfair as well to the team. I probably don’t have enough time to give to it, especially next year.”
Button said he will remain open to one-off racing appearances in the future, hinting that “I’ll be racing in some things next year, but not a full season.”
This would mark the end of a full-time racing career for the Briton that started in Formula Ford in 1998, followed by a tenure in Formula 1 that lasted for nearly two decades and which peaked with the world championship driving for Brawn GP in 2009.
“I’m looking forward to next year, but first of all, there’s four great races here,” said Button prior to last weekend’s fifth round of the WEC season. “Obviously the car’s looking strong, so I’m going to enjoy those races.
“The team is great. The team are really cool. [It’s a] great bunch of drivers over the last two years and it’s a pretty spectacular championship and very competitive and multi-class racing is always fun. I’ve enjoyed my time here.
“I’m just going to go and have some fun. I’ve got four races to have some fun so that’s the aim.”
It is currently not yet known who JOTA and/or Cadillac will bring in to replace Button, although it’s understood that this is likely to be the only change in the team’s two-car Hypercar squad for next year.
The lineup for the team’s other Cadillac, which took victory at Interlagos, consists of Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens.
Davey Euwema is Sportscar365’s European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.