Former F1 champion Jenson Button has been named as the final driver of Jota Sport Hertz to compete in 2024 FIA WEC season.
Britain’s Jenson Button has confirmed that he will enter the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship to contest a full WEC season with Hertz Team JOTA driving a Porsche 963. The 2009 Formula 1 World Champion will pilot the No. 38 entry in the WEC’s headline Hypercar category sharing the cockpit of the Porsche 963 alongside fellow Briton Phil Hanson and Denmark’s Oliver Rasmussen.
The trio will go head-to-head with a record number of Hypercar entries in 2024 [19] including nine different manufacturers (Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Isotta Fraschini, Lamborghini, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota). Button last competed in WEC during the 2018/2019 Super Season under the SMP Racing banner in the WEC’s LMP1 era. Earlier this year, he was part of the Nascar-backed Garage 56 entry during the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Button also competed at IMSA’s season-closing Petit Le Mans in October getting his first taste of the Porsche 963 machinery (run by JDC-Miller).
Round one of the 2024 FIA WEC season takes place in Doha (Qatar) from 1-2 March. Jenson Button: “I’m thrilled to be racing with Hertz Team JOTA in the 2024 World Endurance Championship alongside my teammates Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson. Both already have a lot of experience in endurance racing and that is key. Endurance racing is about teamwork and there is no better team than Hertz Team JOTA to be taking on the big manufacturers in Hypercars. I’m already looking forward to the first race in Qatar but also know there’s a lot of work to be done so that we arrive prepared.”
Frédéric Lequien, FIA WEC CEO: “It’s an honour to have Jenson Button – a hugely successful driver across many racing disciplines – competing full-time in the WEC next year. With nine manufacturers in the Hypercar category next year including star names such as Jenson confirmed on the grid, everything is now in place for the WEC to have its most spectacular season yet.”
Here’s Jota Sport’s rest of the drivers
[Note: The story is as per press release]