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It’s 7pm on Thursday – the first day of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend – and Jenson Button is on a yacht.
After a glittering racing career, including 17 seasons driving Formula One, it must be nice to finally be able to enjoy the Monaco Grand Prix experience most people can only dream of?
“When I do have a chance to relax and enjoy Monaco for what it is, I’ll let you know,” Button tells The CEO Magazine with a laugh.
In February, Button was unveiled as the Brand Ambassador for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team. He says he is busier now than when he was racing.
“Tomorrow my day starts at 9am with hot laps around the track for Aston Martin and it ends at 7.15pm with The F1 Show on Sky Sports F1,” he says. “It’s a full day of work – and I’ve never worked before this.”
“I’ve always thought of myself as a racing driver, not just a Formula One driver.”
The 2009 World Champion, who competed in 306 Grand Prix between 2000 and 2016 and only officially retired from professional racing at the end of last year says all those years behind the wheel were “so easy”.
“When I look back now, I obviously had a lot of pressure on my shoulders and I wanted to perform, but in terms of work, a few hours on a weekend is nothing.”
During his Formula One career, Button’s easy smile and affable nature combined with his determination and technical skill quickly made him one of the sport’s most popular personalities.
It’s these same traits that position him as the ideal ambassador for Aston Martin’s media, partner and commercial ambitions in a Formula One landscape that has evolved dramatically since he last took to the starting grid in 2016.
The following year, Liberty Media acquired the sport. Under its American owners, Formula One has entered a new era, embracing social media, offering fans behind-the-scenes access with the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive and introducing two North American races to the calendar in Miami and Las Vegas.
In 2025, the year the sport celebrated its 75th anniversary, its global fanbase tipped 827 million in 2025, a 63 percent increase on 2018. More than half of all new fans were under 35.
“The big thing for me is that Formula One is attracting this younger audience,” Button says. “When I raced, the fan base was the same as my age, so mid-30s. Now it’s a lot younger and that’s important because it makes the sport cool.”
Gen Z, it seems, are waking up to what Button has always believed.
“I’ve always known the sport was cool,” he says. “I love the racing aspect of it, the teamwork aspect of it. That hasn’t changed.”
“Every single team on the grid is great at what they do and there are a lot of eyes now on them from around the world.”
What has changed is that Formula One has become more competitive.
“Every single team on the grid is great at what they do and there are a lot of eyes now on them from around the world,” he says.
“Sponsors want to be involved, partners want to be involved, and every driver from the age of three wants to be in a Formula One car in the future.”
Button joined Aston Martin in a season of change. Hybrid engines and a mandate that all cars run on advanced sustainable fuels are among the new regulations rolled out at the beginning of 2026. Designed to create a lighter, more compact and more sustainable Formula One car, commentators have called it the most radical regulatory transformation in Formula One history.
For Aston Martin, this season is also noteworthy as it marks the start of partnerships with Honda to develop power units and Aramco and Valvoline for fuel and lubricants.
The team returned to Formula One after a pause of 61 years in 2021, when Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll acquired a 20 percent stake in Aston Martin Lagonda (the road car company) in 2020 and rebranded his Formula One team, Racing Point, into Aston Martin Formula One Team. Since 2023, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso have occupied its two drivers seats.
For Button, who drove with Alonso during the 2015 and 2016 season, the connection with the team is a natural one.
It goes even deeper when you consider Button’s links with Honda: he earned his first ever Formula One Victory at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix racing for Honda. In 2018, he won the Super GT Championship in Japan – also with Honda.
“When the opportunity came up to work with Aston Martin, I was so excited. I love the brand,” he says.
“We’re within one percent of the quickest cars out there, which is crazy when you think about it.”
While 2026 so far has seen the team struggle, with Alonso’s P10 finish in Monaco earning (at the time of writing) its first and only point for the season, Button is staying positive.
“We’re not in the place that we want to be at the moment, but we’re within one percent of the quickest cars out there, which is crazy when you think about it,” he points out.
Add in the appointment of Adrian Newey as new team principal, bringing his championship-winning expertise from Red Bull to the team, and Button is certain that better days are just around the corner.
“This team has everything to succeed,” Button says. “The people involved are such a big part of it, from Lawrence Stroll running the team to Adrian Newey designing the cars and having a massive manufacturer like Honda involved.
“There’s a true belief within the team and that’s why it’s one of the best on the grid in terms of quality of partners and sponsors.”
As for Button, since leaving Formula One he hasn’t strayed far from the track. His professional racing days may be over as of the start of this year, but fans can still catch him racing historic cars. He’s raced in Japan, FIA World Endurance Championship, NASCAR Cup series, Baja off-road trucks and rallycross.
“It’s been awesome,” he enthuses. “I’ve always thought of myself as a racing driver, not just a Formula One driver, so those experiences mean I’ve ticked everything off my bucket list,”
In fact, Button has achieved everything he set out to achieve in his career.
“I have no personal goals left,” he reflects.
His ambition now? Seeing Aston Martin succeed.
“I’d really love to see Aston Martin fighting at the front; they’re a team that can and a team that will because there’s also so much passion here,” he says.
“This team has been through a lot over the last decade. I will do all I can to help them achieve in this sport.”
When discussing what his years at the top of Formula One have taught him about leadership, teamwork and high performance, Button singles out one person in particular: Ross Brawn, who masterminded Button’s championship-winning season at Brawn GP.
“He came into the team and made everyone feel welcome and important. He removed the blame culture that a lot of companies struggle with and he let people have more freedom to think outside the box,” Button says.
As a result, Button won the 2009 Drivers’ Championship – and Brawn GP claimed the Constructors’ Championship.
“We looked at the gray areas and we worked in a way most other teams didn’t,” he recalls. “That’s what I really respected about Ross. His presence could change the atmosphere within a team.”
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