“If you don’t see me on the grid for Le Mans in 2023, there’s something wrong!” he told Motor Sport. “I really want to be racing next year, and my aim is to do Le Mans 2023. I am hungry for more.”
After competing part-time in the World Endurance Championship for the Russian SMP squad in 2018, Button also spoke about the unique challenge presented by driving LMP1 cars on some of the world’s most challenging circuits.
“I raced at Le Mans in the BR1 Dallara chassis – that was cool!” he enthused.
“The car had flipped four weeks prior to that at Spa-Francorchamps through Eau Rouge at almost 200mph, so I was a little scared but the team promised me that they’d made it right and we wouldn’t flip.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get within two car lengths of a car in front, because they were worried about it taking off. Which is interesting at 200mph down the Mulsanne Straight!
Button seen here en route to his one podium in WEC with SMP, at a soaking Shanghai
Clément Marin / DPPI
“But what a feeling, driving at midnight down the Mulsanne at 230mph, in a car where the windscreen is here (motions closely around himself) in the smallest cockpit ever.”
“Such an experience and we blew up with 45 minutes to go, which was the most painful thing ever.”
As well as having his own racing ambitions to fulfill, Button also wants his son Hendrix to witness what his father has become world-renowned for doing.
“I really want my son to see me race, and he’ll be four [by Le Mans 2023]. He probably won’t remember later in life, but I want him to see Daddy race in a race car.”