Button stays with Jota for factory Cadillac switch in 2025 WEC

Button is set for another year of the World Endurance Championship at the age of 44

Jenson Button will remain with the British Jota squad in the World Endurance Championship on its graduation to the factory ranks with Cadillac next season.

The 2009 Formula 1 world champion will move over with Jota from Porsche to Cadillac to drive one of two V-Series LMDhs to be fielded by the team in the Hypercar class.

A second full season in the WEC for 44-year-old Button was confirmed on Thursday when the full driver roster was announced for the Cadillac Hertz Team Jota entries.

Will Stevens and Norman Nato have joined Button in switching from Jota’s two-car squad of customer Porsche 963 LMDhs.

Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will continue with Cadillac at Jota in the WEC after two years racing the General Motors brand’s solo Hypercar entry run by Chip Ganassi Racing

Sebastien Bourdais also makes the move from Ganassi, with which he has been a full-season regular in the IMSA SportsCar Championship since 2022 after calling time on his IndyCar career.

He is switching series having raced alongside Bamber and Lynn in the Qatar and Bahrain WEC rounds at the beginning and end of this year’s campaign.

It will be the first full-time programme outside of North America for the Frenchman since his season and a half in F1 with Toro Rosso in 2008-09.

Bourdais will not remain with Cadillac in IMSA's GTP class next year, but will stay in the series after signing a deal with Tower Motorsport to race in the LMP2 division.

Cadillac and Jota have yet to reveal the driver combinations for its two WEC entries, which will retain the #12 and #38 race numbers from the Porsche programme.

Bamber will also be competing for Cadillac in IMSA next year with Action Express Racing, but it is expected that the Jota programme will take precedence on the clash between the Spa and Laguna Seca races in May and at the Le Mans 24 Hours should the American team contest the WEC double-points round for a third year in succession.

Button was widely expected to stay with Jota having revealed at the start of the season that he saw his time in Hypercar as a two-year venture.

He had, however, refused to confirm his plans and whether he would continue racing ahead of the announcement on Thursday.

Button said: “I’m delighted to be continuing my journey with Hertz Team Jota as they form their new partnership with such an iconic brand as Cadillac.

“Racing with Jota this season has been such a privilege as they’re a team steeped in success in endurance racing and an operation I’ve long admired.

“Those achievements and hard work have now led to this exciting next chapter seeing them partner with Cadillac, a marque which has already impressed with what it has achieved to date in both WEC and IMSA.

“The driver line-up is pretty impressive: we bring our collective experience of working with the Cadillac platform and the experience of working with Jota together.

“We have all the ingredients for a great season ahead.”

Jota director David Clark stated: “Cadillac’s pedigree in motorsport speaks for itself, and with these six drivers we will be in a strong position to challenge for race wins.”

Bourdais, 45, said he was “thankful to be part of this new adventure”, adding: "It's a known quantity with the car and the GM people, so it’s cool to be able to continue there."

Stevens, who took victory in the #12 Jota Porsche in last May’s WEC round at Spa, is continuing a relationship that stretches back to 2016.

The Briton has been a fixture with the team since winning the WEC P2 crown in 2022, saying: “I’ve made no secret of my intention to be with Jota for the long haul and to do this with Cadillac makes it even more special.”

Cadillac is upscaling its WEC assault this season in line with a new rule mandating two-car entries for manufacturer teams competing in Hypercar.

Ganassi fielded only one car in the WEC in 2023 and 2024: its two-car IMSA assault of 2022 with the DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype international was effectively split in half at the start of the Hypercar era, with one car racing in the world championship and one in North America.

It unilaterally announced in March that its relationship with Cadillac would come to an end at the conclusion of this year’s WEC and IMSA campaigns.

Ganassi ran Bamber and Lynn as a duo in the six-hour WEC races this year, but Jota always intended to stick with three drivers on its switch to Cadillac.

Team boss Sam Hignett has stressed the importance of racing with the same line-up as at Le Mans in all WEC events.

Jota will shake down its V-Series.R chassis at the Anneau du Rhin circuit close to the German border in northern France next week.