Jenson Button says F1 is thrilling fans again under new owners... but more must be done

Life has changed immeasurably for Jenson Button. Once mobbed by global Formula One fans, he can go days without recognition in his new Los Angeles lifestyle.

Running, cycling or walking his dogs, Storm and Rogue, in the surrounding hills, he has found his relatively innocuous presence refreshing after 17 years in the goldfish bowl of F1, in which every detail of his life was pored over.

“Every now and then I’ll go to the supermarket and I’ll get a, ‘Are you kidding me?’” he says in his best American accent. “‘Jenson Button in my grocery store’ — but no one else around will have a clue who I am in that moment, which is hilarious. And that’s about it.”

For Button, F1 is gone — he has turned down the advances of two teams already (he won’t say which ones) — but is not forgotten. A regular viewer of qualifying sessions, he still watches the race highlights and admits to enjoying the show now he is no longer ensconced in it.

“The new owners [Liberty Media] understand the sport needs to move on technically and, by that, I don’t mean the power unit,” he said during a visit to London on Thursday. “I mean in terms of social media and what have you, an area that Bernie [Ecclestone] wasn’t interested in.

“I don’t think people have switched off from F1, but it was heading in that direction. It’s definitely turned and I think people are positive about it with the new owners but there are a few things I’d like to see happen.”

Partly inspired by his plans for next season — the eight-race Super GT Championship in Japan — the 2009 F1 world champion would love to see the field levelled.

“The thing that a few categories do is weight cars. If you win a race, you get a weight penalty,” he said. “People will say it’s not good for the sport, but neither is DRS. This would be a fairer way of controlling it and would be worth trying to see what the fans think about it.”

The 37-year-old admits such an introduction would be difficult, so powerful are the leading teams, unlike in other branches of motorsport.

“In Super GT, you can get a maximum penalty of 50kg and then you get air restrictions for the engine if you win another race, so that slows you on the straights,” he said. “We all know that the fans would love it — the potential for all the teams to be on the podium — but the big teams wouldn’t. Maybe I’ll put it to Ross.”

The team boss of his championship-winning year, Ross Brawn, is now the technical boss for the sport but, bar a coffee in Japan where they talked about classic cars for the most part, Brawn has yet to pick the brains of his former charge.

DRS is Button’s F1 bugbear, a facet of the sport which he says blighted the end of his racing days in F1.

DRS is the drag reduction system, whereby chasing cars within a second of the car in front can activate an overtaking aid at set points on a track.

“I’d like to see it gone,” Button insisted. “Every time you see a DRS move on TV, it’s like, ‘Okay, you’ve got to within one second, that’s it’. There’s no excitement and the drivers don’t feel any excitement either.

“When you make a move — a proper move — stick, it’s out of this world. It’s an amazing feeling, probably the best feeling after winning a grand prix. I think the fans really respect it as well when you make a proper move.”

His other wish is a return to the ear-splitting V10 engines but he realises the hybrids are here to stay.

But Button is positive about the future. He believes there will be six separate grand prix winners next season, with Red Bull seemingly resurgent, and says it is not beyond the realms of possibility for his former team, McLaren, to have aspirations to win races in 2018.

“Having at least three teams scrapping at the front is great,” he said. “If it was still Mercedes versus Mercedes, I might have switched off a bit, but Ferrari are now there. Okay, they’ve fluffed their lines amid the pressure, but they’re clearly quick — and Red Bull have given Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo a car capable of winning races. There’s a lot to be positive about.”

Were the front-runners to come calling, would he make a return?

“Well, I knew Mercedes were looking when Nico Rosberg retired,” he said. “But I never called them. They might have said, ‘What can a 36-year-old do for us?’ or they might have said, ‘Why not?’ The point is I never asked. I’m happy being out.”