Button confident F1 faces a bright future

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Jenson Button is confident F1's key stakeholders "will finally make the right decisions" to help safeguard the sport's future.

The governance of F1 has been in the spotlight this season, with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) writing an open letter which called for an overhaul. Button is a director of the GPDA and has been vocal at times this year, but the McLaren driver told F1i he has faith progress will be made which will strengthen the sport.

"I think it’s tricky when a sport is the pinnacle, when the motorsport you race in is the pinnacle, because you’re always going to get more criticism," Button said. "Formula 1, rallying, those two sports at the moment are getting so much criticism in different ways either from people involved or from people outside.

"I think the important thing is the people who can make the difference notice that and can change the sport. Then it looks good. If we can change in the right direction it’s fantastic and it can be done. I’m sure the people in charge that make the decisions will finally make the right decisions."

And Button says he does not fear for the sport in the short and medium-term as he sees a willingness to make changes.

“No I’m not worried because I think Formula 1 as a whole understands now that things need to change. There’s always some criticism about any sport, it’s never perfect and even 10 years ago we were complaining about certain things. So it’s always there but it seems to be more these days.

"The important thing is I think people understand things need to change and it is going to change. So that’s great to see and great to hear, it’s just a matter of time. Hopefully we don’t lose the fanbase that we have because that would be an issue.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.