2009 Champion Button Returns to Racing in 2018

Published 12/03/2017, 5:52 AM EST

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2009 champion Button had confirmed that he would be making a full-time return to motorsport next year. Jenson was particularly keen on racing in Japan or America. Jenson Button participated in the Super GT’s showpiece Suzuka 1000km race in August 2017 and before that he filled in for Fernando Alonso at Monaco. Now the Briton will contest the entire 2018 Super GT season, which begins on April 7-8 at Okayama.

via Imago

Button made the announcement official at the Honda Racing Thanks Day festival at Motegi. However, he revealed no further information regarding his team or the co-drivers. In the Super GT series, Honda is one of the three manufacturers alongside Nissan and Lexus. Honda currently fields five single-car teams on the grid. It has been lagging behind Nissan and Lexus in recent seasons, despite Honda-powered cars winning two races in 2017.

Button said, “I’ll be racing for Honda and have a contract to race with Honda in Super GT in 2018. It’s been a dream for the last couple of years, I love the category. I did one race in Suzuka this year, and it got me very excited. I’m very excited about the new season. There’s a lot of testing to be done to feel comfortable and hopefully improve the package and go out next year and be competitive.”

Although Button will be resuming racing again, he has been adamant about rejoining Formula One again. He feels that his time in the sport is done. 2009 champion Button opted to take a sabbatical after 2016 and only agreed to one-off appearances in F!, but ruled out a full season return.

For 2018, McLaren will be partnering Renault after a tumultuous 3 seasons with Honda. They have also retained their lineup of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne for next season.

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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