Button to follow late father into rallycross
Button to follow late father into rallycross
Jenson Button is to make his rallycross debut this year after joining the Nitro grid.
The 2009 F1 champion will compete alongside Oliver Bennett for XITE Energy Racing in the championship set up by American extreme sports legend Travis Pastrana.
The move sees Button switch to another new form of motorsport after racing in Extreme E last year and endurance racing since retiring from F1 at the end of 2016.
Button will follow in the footsteps of late father John, who was a prolific driver in the British Rallycross championship.
A tweet confirming his place with XITE said: "Welcome to the team Jenson Button!!
"We are so pleased to announce that Jenson Button will join our Nitro Rallycross team for 2022, racing alongside Oliver Bennett.
"Let’s go team."
Button facing "big and kind of scary jumps"
The 2022-23 Nitro Rallycross season will visit 10 locations, beginning with Britain's legendary Lydden Hill circuit in June.
Looking ahead to the experience, Button said: "I want to go racing. I love racing, I love competing and I want to have fun.
"I’m looking forward to racing Nitro RX with Xite Energy, a team which has great experience of not just rallycross but also racing electric vehicles.
"And I get to race alongside my mate Oli. He’s a great character, great for the sport and comes with a lot of experience of competing on the dirt.
"Hopefully, I can learn that side from him and he can learn from my circuit driving.
"It’s going to be a fun partnership, but I think it’s going to be a good partnership as well and hopefully we can take it to the big boys in rallycross."
As to emulating his father, Button added: "That would be pretty special."
Explaining the attraction of the series, he said: "Some of the jumps I’ll be flying over are extremely big and kind of scary, but that’s why it’s exciting to me as it’s a new challenge.
"Rallycross is night and day different from Formula 1 and that’s why I love it. I left F1 after 17 years because I wanted to try something new.
"I’m all about new challenges. I’m a racing driver, not a Formula 1 driver, so new challenges are what I’m all about.
"I felt I achieved what I needed to in Formula 1 so it’s nice to try different things."
🚨 Welcome to the team Jenson Button!!
— XITE ENERGY RACING (@EnergyXite) April 12, 2022
We are so pleased to announce that @JensonButton will join our @NitroRallycross team for 2022, racing alongside @42obennett .
Let’s go team 🤙🏻#iamxite #NitroRX @XiteEnergy @myenergiuk @TravisPastrana pic.twitter.com/a95AYQBzHM
F1 daily poll
Change your timezone:
Latest News
F1 News Today: Vettel CONFIRMS stunning comeback as Red Bull boss issues Verstappen statement
- 24 minutes ago
F1 manager reveals Piastri 'balance' challenge
- 1 hour ago
EXCLUSIVE: Hamilton engineer reveals top drivers' key characteristic
- 2 hours ago
Red Bull now pressured into MISTAKES insists F1 rivals as title race heats up
- 3 hours ago
F1 fan celebrates Verstappen failure with OUTRAGEOUS permanent change
- Today 10:57
Wolff opens up on WHY Mercedes are 'very bad'
- Today 09:55
F1 Race Calendar
-
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
- GP MONACO 24 - 26 May
Related news
F1 race winner reveals the ONLY team-mate he got on with
F1 legend admits being 'very close' to SENSATIONAL Ferrari switch before Hamilton
Button STUNNED by Raikkonen night out antics
Button delivers EPIC F1 reaction and asks question everyone wants answered
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860