Farewell Jenson Button: Why F1 will sorely miss one of sport’s true gentlemen – Telegraph.co.uk

Ahead of this Sunday’s end-of-season race in Abu Dhabi, Button said he “goes into this weekend thinking it’s my last race” and that “at this moment in time I don’t want to be racing in F1 beyond this race”. He was hardly stressing the big ‘R’. But for some sportsmen and women walking away is harder said than done.

Should Abu Dhabi be the last F1 race Button lines up for he leaves the sport with a gaping hole. The 2009 world champion will be remaining in the sport in an ambassadorial role for McLaren but he will largely be helping highly-rated reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne find his feet.

With Felipe Massa also ending his F1 career in the desert this weekend, the grid that lines up in Australia in 2017 will lack race intelligence, experience and big personalities too.