Jenson Button will leave WEC after 2025, but won't retire yet

Jenson Button will not continue in the World Endurance Championship with the Jota Cadillac team next season.

The 2009 Formula 1 world champion has opted against undertaking a full programme of racing in 2026, but has insisted that he is not retiring.

Button, who has a two-year contract with Jota covering the 2024 and ’25 seasons, listed his busy work schedule, which includes acting as a pundit on Sky TV’s F1 coverage, and family reasons for stepping down from full-time competition.

“Life has got too busy with so many different things going on – it is a very busy schedule I have,” said Button.

“It is about time I start thinking about the future a little bit more, and I want to spend more time with my family.

“It is unfair as well to the team: I probably don’t have enough time to give to it, especially next year.”

#38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button

Photo by: FIAWEC - DPPI

Button stressed that he intends to race in 2026: “I will be racing in something next year, but not a full season.”

Asked if that could involve a return to the NASCAR Cup Series in which he undertook three races in 2023, he was non-committal. “Maybe, we’ll see,” he said.

Button’s post-F1 career has included appearances in various series, in addition to two stints in the WEC, starting with four races in 2018-19 driving one of SMP Racing’s AER-engined BR1 Engineering LMP1s.

The deal with Jota to drive one of its customer Porsche 963 LMDhs in the WEC last year represented his first full programme since a two-year stint in the Super GT Series with the Team Kunimitsu Honda squad in 2018 and ’19, which yielded the title with Naoki Yamamato in year one.

There have also been outings for Button in the British GT Championship and Extreme E driving for his own teams, as well as the IMSA SportsCar Championship and Nitro Rallycross Championship.

Jota boss Sam Hignett, whose team gave Cadillac a maiden WEC victory at Interlagos last weekend, made a candid reference to Button’s departure when discussing the driver line-up for Cadillac’s factory WEC squad next year.

“There will be one change; one driver has been very public about what his future is,” he said. “Apart from that everyone else will be the same.”

When asked about a replacement for the departing driver, Hignett refused to be drawn and stated that there would be no announcement prior to the WEC season finale in Bahrain in November.