Button not thinking about retirement

Jenson Button

As Formula One welcomes a new era in 2014, Jenson Button says he wants to be around for the long haul.

The McLaren driver will remain with the team for a fifth season next year having joined the Woking outfit on the back of his 2009 Championship success with Brawn GP.

Next season the sport will look rather different to the one Button has known all these years as the V8 engines make way for 1.6-litre turbocharged V6s.

But rather than be daunted by the change, the Brit is looking forward to it and hopes 2014 won't be his only season with the V6s.

"There are exciting years ahead in terms of 2014 and the new regulations, and with our new engine manufacturer Honda in 2015, so I want to be around for the next couple of years definitely," he told the Daily Mail.

"At the moment I am 33 and I have been in Formula One for 14 years. It sounds crazy long, and when I started as a 20-year-old, I never thought I would be racing into my thirties.

"But I still feel young enough – even though I have got a stupid beard at the moment – and personally I feel that I have still got so much more to achieve in the sport."

McLaren, however, face a big task next season bouncing back from this year's disappointment which saw the Woking team finish the Championship without a single top-three result.

"With having a bad year like this year, we've really learnt a lot from our mistakes and I think if you learn from those mistakes it makes you a stronger team, and it has really pulled us together."

In fact, he even reckons McLaren can take the fight to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing in 2014.

"Yes," he said when asked. "It is the simple one to answer. Red Bull have done a great job – they really have to win four championships on the trot.

"But the rules haven't really changed much over these four years, and now they will change a lot.

"I go into 2014 as a team thinking we can win,' Button continued. 'But whether we produce the car or not, that is another question." Planet F1