Undoubtedly one of the most high-profile lineups on the 2025 WEC grid has just been formed.
In his second full-time WEC season, his second with Team Jota, and his first with Cadillac, Jenson Button will share the wheel of the #38 with Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber.
Between them, they boast an extraordinary resume: one F1 World Championship title, 333 Grand Prix starts, three class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 28 starts, four Champ Car titles, 10 Indianapolis 500 starts, a 24 Hours of Daytona victory and three wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
On paper, this is a dream team. But it is also a trio with an average age of over 41 years. Bourdais will turn 46 on February 28, and Button just celebrated his 45th birthday on January 19. It's the oldest top-class line-up in WEC.
For manufacturers like Peugeot, retaining drivers of this age would be unthinkable. That’s precisely why Bourdais wasn’t selected for its 9X8 program. In hindsight, he’s probably grateful. But Button dismisses these concerns.
"If you still have the motivation and are physically fit, there’s no reason you can’t keep racing," the Brit asserts. "Look at Fernando (Alonso) in F1, he’s only a year younger than me."
His own team-mate Bourdais is the perfect example of how age can be an asset rather than a liability. Like a fine French wine, he only seems to get better with time. "This old guy is hard to keep up with," another Cadillac driver said during the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Last year, at 45 years old, Bourdais won Petit Le Mans, just four months after setting the third-fastest laptime in the Hyperpole session at Le Mans, finishing just 0.034s behind Alex Lynn, his team-mate in the sister car, who is 14 years younger than him.
"We have six extremely strong drivers with a combination of experience and fresh eyes on the Cadillac program," explained team principal Dieter Gass.
"Each of these drivers brings something unique to the table, and as a team, our job was to establish which combinations made the most sense to maximize the overall strengths of the group. While character and personality play a big role in team dynamics, driving style and preferences were also key factors in determining who would be paired in each car.
"We took our time over this process, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what both trios can achieve in Qatar [season-opener venue] and beyond."
It is, however, surprising to note that Cadillac Team Jota has chosen to group its three oldest drivers together in the same car. The #12 will be driven by Alex Lynn, Norman Nato, and Will Stevens, a trio with an average age of 32. A very solid lineup, featuring three drivers still in their prime but with extensive endurance racing experience.
At 34, Earl Bamber doesn’t mind sharing the wheel with Bourdais, whose raw speed he admires and whom he already partnered with last year in Qatar and Bahrain. Button, on the other hand, is not the outright pace-setter in the team. He knows it, and his presence is also due to his marketability, which is invaluable to the team’s partners. This is especially true for a team that relies heavily on major sponsors.
"A driver’s commercial value is also important," Jota co-founder Sam Hignett admitted at the start of last season.
Is he completely off the pace, though? No. Despite a shaky start to the season, Button quickly raised his game to the point where he even outpaced some of his much younger team-mates in terms of fastest race laps and average lap times.
Experience, too, has its advantages. Across eight races, Button never made a costly mistake—something that Callum Ilott (26 years old), the fastest single-lap driver in Jota’s ranks last season, couldn’t say. Ilott’s errors cost his car dearly, most notably at Imola, and even more dramatically at Le Mans.
Remember Free Practice 2? Ilott crashed the #12 Porsche 963, just hours after qualifying it for Hyperpole, breaking the chassis. From that moment on, the German prototype never recovered the pace it had shown before the accident.
This starkly illustrates how a driving approach can evolve with age and experience. And both Bourdais and Button know that this is one of their last chances to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, if not their final shot.
"I don’t see myself racing professionally in five years," Button admits. "There are so many other things I want to do in life. But right now, I’m in a great place. And for me, this is definitely my best chance yet to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans."
Button’s history at Le Mans is brief but varied. He competed in 2018 with an SMP Racing BR1, then returned in 2023 to race in the Garage 56 NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. But this time, he has his best-ever shot at conquering endurance racing’s most legendary event. For the first time, he will take on Le Mans as a driver for a major manufacturer.
"Of course, we’ll have more pressure as a factory team," Button admitted. "But I think everyone here welcomes that challenge. It’s a good sign. It’s a brand-new car for the team, yet it already feels like they’ve got it under control. What’s great is that the team wants to go through its own learning process with the car, even though they could probably find the information elsewhere (from Cadillac and Dallara). But I think it’s a good approach because it allows them to develop their own understanding of things. The entire group is doing its homework to fully grasp the car and be ready for any necessary adjustments."
And what about the car? "It’s an LMDh, so it’s not like it’s something completely new," Button said. "But what I immediately loved is the deep growl of the V8 behind us. When you leave the pits, when you shift gears... What a pleasure! It’s such an amazing sensation, which, of course, reminded me of my participation in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans with the NASCAR entry in Garage 56.
"Is it easier to drive than the 963 Porsche? I don’t think either of them is particularly easy to drive. These Hypercar-class machines, besides being heavy (1,030 kg minimum), don’t generate massive aerodynamic downforce. More than time spent behind the wheel, it’s the time spent off the track that helps you improve. There’s a lot of data analysis, discussions with engineers, fine-tuning…"
To achieve his dream, the 2009 F1 world champion will rely on Team Jota, a team hungry for success and finally given the opportunity to represent a major manufacturer in the top category. He will also benefit from the support of Cadillac’s other IMSA teams, Action Express Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, both of which are expected to increase Cadillac’s presence to four cars on the grid for the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 14-15).
"Communication is everything," Button said. "Not just between Cadillac Racing and Team Jota, but also between the teams and us, the drivers. From what my teammates have told me, communication is already much better than last year. In fact, we have a group chat where all the Cadillac IMSA and WEC drivers exchange information. I’ve never seen that before from teams racing on both sides of the Atlantic. We have to work hand in hand, it’s essential, especially since two of the three teams (WTR in IMSA and Hertz Team Jota in WEC) are new to the V-Series.R. Any help will be welcome!"
Everything is in place for Button to chase his dream. Now, the challenge lies in proving that time has not dulled his edge, and that he can rediscover or even exceed the pace he displayed at the end of last season.
And if doubts ever creep in, he needs only remember that Tom Kristensen claimed the last of his nine Le Mans victories in 2013, at the age of 45. The record for the oldest winner still belongs to Luigi Chinetti, who conquered Le Mans in 1949 at nearly 48 years old. Yet, those were different times, when the competition was far less fierce than it is today...
