Button ready to get back to racing in 2017

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Jenson Button might have stepped away from racing in Formula One, but that doesn't mean he won't still be competing on the track in 2017.

"This year for me is about everything else in my life, apart from Formula One," he said this week.

"I’ve been enjoying myself and it’s been great so far. I will still be racing this year – starting this weekend."

The 2009 world champion will be back in action at the Race of Champions event, being held this year at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida.

"There’s a real mix of drivers from different formulas," he added

Alongside Sebastian Vettel, Pascal Wehrlein and Felipe Massa also taking part will be Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi and Scott Speed together with stars from NASCAR and IndyCar.

Vettel leads F1 challenge at 2017 RoC in Miami

"It’s great to be back at the Race Of Champions, especially to be in Miami. It was my birthday [on Thursday] - I’m 37 now, so I’m a bit the worse for wear today," he added ahead of Friday's practice session. "Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be in better form."

Button will be taking part in the individual competition on Saturday and in the Roc Nations Cup on Sunday which will see him paired up with David Coulthard as part of Team GB.

"My ROC Nations Cup team-mate DC is always very good if he hasn’t slept much. Thankfully it doesn’t look like he’s slept much, so he should be firing on all cylinders, however many of those there are!" Button quipped.

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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.