Jenson Button

Jenson Button is one of Britain’s most respected figures in elite sport and the 2009 FIA Formula 1 World Champion. Over an 18-year career at the pinnacle of world motorsport, he secured 15 Grand Prix victories, 50 podium finishes and 1,235 championship points, competing for Williams, Renault, Honda, Brawn GP and McLaren. He is an MBE, a Sky Sports F1 analyst, Team Ambassador for Aston Martin Aramco, and co-founder of Coachbuilt Whisky. A polished, articulate speaker, Jenson delivers insight and humour with strong audience engagement. In conversation, Jenson moves beyond results to share the mindset behind them. He speaks about adapting quickly to new teams and machinery, building deep trust with engineers, and staying composed when the margins are tiny and the pressure is intense. His philosophy, often summed up as “smooth is fast”, offers a powerful lesson for business: clarity, precision and consistency outperform frantic effort.

For organisations navigating change, integration or performance challenges, his insights are highly relevant. He shows leaders how to build rapport fast, create psychological safety in high-stakes environments, and balance ambition with long-term sustainability. Audiences leave with practical ideas on communication, resilience and decision-making under pressure. The son of former racer John Button, Jenson began karting at a young age and won the 1991 British Cadet Karting Championship. He progressed rapidly, claiming the British Formula Ford Championship and the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1998, as well as the prestigious McLaren-Autosport BRDC Award. A year later he finished third in the British Formula 3 Championship, earning a Formula 1 test with Williams that led to a full-time race seat at just 20 years old. After early seasons with Williams and Benetton, later Renault, Jenson moved to BAR-Honda in 2003.

There he established himself as one of the sport’s most consistent performers, finishing third in the 2004 World Championship with 10 podiums. His first Grand Prix victory came at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. When Honda withdrew from F1 at the end of 2008, the team was reborn as Brawn GP under Ross Brawn. In one of sport’s most remarkable stories, Jenson won six of the first seven races in 2009 and went on to secure the World Championship, leading the standings throughout the season. He joined McLaren as reigning Champion, winning a further eight Grands Prix between 2010 and 2012 and finishing runner-up in the 2011 World Championship, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. He remained with McLaren through the early hybrid era before stepping back from full-time Formula 1 at the end of 2016. Beyond F1, he won the 2018 Super GT title in Japan and competed in endurance racing, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as NASCAR Cup Series appearances.