There was a first-time driver at the 2024 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, a competitor who, prior to Monterey Car Week, had never turned a lap at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Not that you’d call him a rookie.
Formula 1 champion Jenson Button has raced nearly everything, from Trophy trucks to SuperGT, but this year marked his first visit to Monterey’s legendary 2.24-mile course. I sat down with Button to chat about his life after Formula 1, his vintage racing forays, and his first time down the Corkscrew.
Button, a Rolex Testimonee, brought his 1952 Jaguar C-Type to the Motorsport Reunion. Originally owned by five-time F1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio, the Jaguar is beautifully preserved and regularly exercised.
"I finished fifth today, which I’m pretty happy with considering we’re racing against cars from the Sixties," Button told Motor1. "I finished 20 seconds ahead of a D-Type, which is not bad. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to this event. I’ve never raced here. It’s really good fun. I go to Goodwood Revival a lot, which is cars from very early to the mid-Sixties, and that’s it. Here, you have cars from up until 15 years ago, so there’s a real broad choice of cars."
The 2009 world champion found himself at a bit of a horsepower disadvantage compared to the other cars in his class.
"Here, you’re racing against cars from 1950 to '63. You’re never going to beat the cars from the early Sixties, they’re big V-8s," he said. "This is an XK engine, it produces over 300 horsepower now, but back in the '50s it was 210 horsepower. But you’re still running on drum brakes, they’re not discs, so trying to stop the thing is quite fun."
Button is a fixture at the Goodwood Revival, where priceless vintage race cars occasionally gather major damage as drivers vie for glory. How does the racing at Laguna Seca compare?
"The circuit’s so different," he said. "Goodwood is so fast, you’re drifting the whole way around. This car, here, is a lot more difficult, because it doesn’t drift that well. It’s a very stop-start track. The competition is obviously a lot higher at Goodwood. The cars are prepared right on the limit of regulation, and you get all pro drivers racing, so it’s a different feel. But it’s still great."
I asked if drivers at Laguna Seca are simply out for a parade lap.
"No, jeez, they still go hard," Button said. "We had a great race this morning, really good race, with a big V-8 Knobbly and a Lotus 11."
Button’s six-cylinder C-Type was the only mass-production sports car to finish in the top 10 in the Briggs Cunningham Trophy Race—everything else was a purpose-built racing machine.
"There’s so many cars here," Button said "I go to classic car races a lot. There’s nothing modern."
We’re walking through the paddock, and Button points out a 1992 Mazda RX-792P prototype racer.
"Those are the cars that I loved watching in the Eighties and Nineties," he said. "The Mercedes Sauber prototype. I love the 935 Porsche, good memories of watching those cars race." He points to his early-Fifties Jag. "Personally I don’t like anything that’s older than this. I get it, it’s cool, but this I can drive hard. We’re doing 180 km over the hill!"
And what about his first time down the legendary Corkscrew? Button is nonchalant.
"Yeah, it’s fine," he said with a shrug. "It’s cool, but, it’s not Eau Rouge. When you’re racing, you’re focused, you don’t really think about it too much. You’re just trying to get around it as quick as you can. Eau Rouge on the other hand, every time you go through there you think, 'I hope I come through the other side.'"
He’s quick to point out that his 72-year-old Jaguar might not give him the full experience of the Corkscrew’s formidable reputation. "I think if you’re racing something like an IndyCar around here, it would feel very quick," he said.
Button is a joy to talk to—energetic, quick-thinking, a thoughtful conversationalist who seems to genuinely enjoy every interaction, even as he’s juggling his duties as Rolex ambassador and vintage racing competitor. I ask if he’s having more fun today than when he was in Formula 1.
"Yes," he says emphatically. "F1 was great, it’s what every driver wants to do—race in F1 and win a World Championship. But still, I raced for 17 years in Formula 1. Doesn’t matter that it’s the best job in the world, you still wanna do something different. It’s like, is this my life, always the same? It’s very small in a way. I traveled the world, saw so many different countries, so many different cultures I never would have known if I wasn’t racing F1. But then it got to a point where it was like, I live in an apartment in Monaco, and I’m never there. I’m always traveling, always on flights. I wanna do something different."
When he retired from full-time F1 in 2016, initially he planned to take a few years off from racing, a complete and total break.
"Then after a few months, it’s like, 'I wanna go racing again,'" he said. "I was in a position where I could basically choose what I wanted to do. And I always had a love for Japan, I raced for a Japanese team for so many years. I spoke to Honda about racing in SuperGT, the best GT cars in the world, and they said yeah, let’s do it. I had a 2 year contract with them, we won the championship the first year, mostly down to my teammate. He was exceptional. Absolutely loved it, such a cool experience. Then it was like, what can I cherry-pick to do outside of F1 that I could never do while I was doing F1?"
He’s done it all, nearly—Trophy trucks, NASCAR Cup Series, EV racing, and even eSports. Parachuting into one-off races was fun, but the F1 champ was never anywhere long enough to get settled.
"I needed to do more than just jump into a car," Button told Motor1. "I wasn’t going to get the best out of myself. I had to do a full season, just to see if I still love it."
This year, in addition to his busy vintage racing schedule, Button is competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving a Porsche hypercar for Hertz Team Jota. His co-drivers, Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen, are both in their early 20s. Button notices the difference.
"At 44, it just takes you longer to learn it all," he said. "My teammates now are 23 and 24, so I think they actually do learn a lot quicker. And I’ve noticed they work a lot harder than when I was 23. They’ll sit down for hours and run through it and I’m like, really? I’ve definitely been more relaxed than them. Am I as good as when I was 29? Probably not quite as good. The edge is probably gone. But I still feel pretty bloody quick. I’m happy about that."
