Jenson Button has no regrets about deciding to quit Formula 1, and says that his life is so much better since he departed McLaren.
“I’ve definitely done my years in F1 and stepping away was great, it was a good time for me to do it," he told ESPN this weekend.
"It’s been awesome!" he added. "I’m much happier as a person now. Life is great, and I’m racing things I’ve always wanted to race in."
In fact it's been so good, his only regret was not quitting sooner.
“Realistically, if I’d had the choice, I would have left half-way through [2016]," he admitted.
Button retired from driving full time in F1 at the end of 2016, although he made a one-off return in 2017 subbing for Fernando Alonso at Monaco.
He finally walked away for good at the end of 2017. However he was back in action at Le Mans last weekend, behind the wheel of the #11 SMP Racing BR LMP1 car with team mates Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin.
"Le Mans is something I also wanted to do but I didn't want to wait until I was 40 to do it," Button admitted. The 38-year-old has successfully beaten that deadline by two years.
"Who knows what's going to happen in two years? You'll have manufacturers involved and have more of a hypercar base, is what they are saying.
"They won't be as quick as these cars so it's nice to get into these monsters to drive round in. Doing anything around here in under three minutes twenty is just madness. It's very exciting."
Sadly a prolonged technical issue shortly after the start of the race put the car out of contention, and left it 48 laps down by the time it got back on track.
Even so, he was keen to climb in the cockpit and take the car out for a spin for as long as he could - especially at night.
"It's not comparable to anything I've really done before because some areas of the track are so dark," he said. "Eventually it becomes second nature at some parts of the track when you've done so many laps through the day."
"But I don't know if you ever get used to it," he admitted. "It's not natural to be awake for 36 hours!
"I think my levels of fatigue are not an issue because I've done triathlons for years," he pointed out. "Four-and-a-half-hour races, pushing yourself a lot harder than you're pushing yourself here.
"Here it's more mental than physical, I think that's the bigger issue I'm not used to, reacting to things for that period of time."
Unfortunately the car suffered late-race engine issues which meant Button was forced to park at the Indianapolis corner with an hour to go.
As well as competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship 'super season', Button is also fulfilling an ambition to race in the Japanese Super GT Formula.
And last week he also announced that he was getting engaged to his girlfriend, former model Brittany Ward.
As far as the 2009 Formula 1 world champion is concerned, it seems hard to imagine how much more "awesome" the year could get.
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