Button: Why Abu Dhabi is the end... for now

At Monza in September, we received the news that Jenson Button won't be racing in Formula 1 next year. His 16 consecutive years of driving in the top flight of the sport have come to an end. His dream is over.

Replacing him at McLaren is the quick, talented Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne. The once youthful, boy-next-door Jenson Button, now 36, has been usurped by a fresher, leaner, younger hot-shoe who is 12 years his junior. It's the unfortunate reality that will hit us all one day.

Button, though, will remain with McLaren on a new, two-year deal, as an ambassador and reserve driver for the team. And, in 2018, if McLaren takes up the option, he'll be back in the car, presumably to replace Fernando Alonso when his three-year contract expires.

So what will Button do next? Yes, there is a chance he could race in 2018. He might even be on the grid next year if anything happens to Alonso or Vandoorne - but this could also be the end. F1 is on the verge of a significant change and one that will seem very odd without the not-so-young Jenson Alexander Lyons Button on the starting grid.

JENSON BUTTON: Next year I'll be an ambassador for the team, so I will be at races. I'll spend time here at the McLaren Technlology Centre and I'll do stuff in the simulator and work with a few of the sponsors.

I will still try to help them develop the car from the outside. I think it will be quite interesting to step back and see what I've missed for so many years and there will definitely be things I learn that I can put to good use in 2018. Apart from that, I don't know what I'm going to do.

For me, having the free time is what I need in my life right now. I'll spend more time with friends and family. I might race something. Cars? I will do triathlons and hopefully qualify for the 70.3 Ironman World Championship. That's one thing I want to do, so I'll come back super-fit. I'll be even fitter than now if I do come back to race again in 2018.

As a professional athlete who has been pushing himself competitively every fortnight for the past 16 years, Button is likely to find lack of competition unsettling. Triathlons will help fill that adrenaline-fuelled void. As would racing elsewhere. There's been talk of Super GT in Japan and Le Mans - so would sportscars be an option?

JB: It does appeal and I love the camaraderie, the team effort and the passion. And after 24 hours of Le Mans, there's the celebration whether you've won or not. I have interest in that and if the right team and situation was available I would - but that won't be over the next two years.

I tell Jenson about watching him drive out of his Yas Marina garage in 2014, gunning the engine and laying two black rubber lines on the garage floor, perhaps thinking his time in F1 was up as he went into the winter uncertain whether he would be retained. Would he do something similar again this year? He smiles at the memory...

JB: Well, I actually judged that to perfection because you're not allowed to spin your tyres in the pitlane and I stopped just before I got there. That was just a cheeky little thing, as someone doesn't like black lines in the garage.

I don't know what I'm going to do in Abu Dhabi. I'm going to enjoy the rest of the season, out of the car I'm going to be more relaxed. Racing won't be any different. But at the end of the season, the last race of the year? I don't know. But I won't think about it too much.

If it is my last race in Formula 1, it is, and I don't have any issues with that whatsoever. I will have a lot of friends there and family to celebrate the last race of 2016 and - possibly - my last race in the sport. So we'll make it a special occasion and it's the perfect place as well to get friends and family to visit.

F1 RACING: You're driving as well as ever. Beating your team-mate at Monza, that qualifying lap at Spa...

JB: Yeah, I'm still at my best, but to be fair I was never not going to be at my best because I wouldn't do something if I didn't think I was good enough. I'm fit, I eat right, I work my arse off for this team...

I'm the one who's in all the aerodynamics meetings - the direction of the car, I put a lot of time and effort into making sure I have my say and the car will go in the direction I want it to - so I am in a good position this year, I don't want that to change. So this is the right call, to take a break next year.

The emphasis on Jenson himself being the driver in all the aerodynamic meetings is, by implication, a reference to another driver in the team who isn't. There's just a hint there that he doesn't want it all to end, before he comes back to say, that, yes, he does want a break.

And while Jenson won't be on the grid in Melbourne, it won't be the first race he's missed since his F1 debut in 2000: there were two Monaco absences. The first in 2003 when he crashed heavily at the chicane in Saturday morning practice and the second two years later during that BAR-Honda ban. Still, it will seem odd without him...

F1R: You won't be on the grid in Melbourne in 2017 - will that seem strange for you?

JB: Actually it won't be all that strange because I've already booked in a triathlon on that weekend. I'm going to be getting up at 5.30am, watching the TV, eating white bread with honey on it - so I'll be doing all that while you lot will be preparing for the first grand prix of the year.

Then I'll go out swimming and I'll run my arse off. So I won't really be thinking about it.

There are F1 'lifers' who cannot break away. Long after some have finished racing in the championship, they continue as ambassadors for sponsors or as TV pundits to maintain the jet-set lifestyle. It's hard to imagine Jenson, who has known only this life since he was a teenager, suddenly giving it all up...

F1R: Will you stay in the sport and work in TV like Martin Brundle or David Coulthard have?

JB: The reason I want to have a break is because I live by Bernie's schedule. I have done for my whole grown-up life and I don't want to any more - especially not next year. I wouldn't want to be in the position of still going to every single race because if I was doing that I'd want to be driving a car.

I might still do some stuff in F1, but I wouldn't do more than four or five races. Maybe there's a possibility of doing TV elsewhere, outside of F1, but I don't know. I don't want to spend my whole life following the calendar - that's the reason for what is happening.

F1R: When will you drive the 2017 car? Or the simulator?

JB: I'm sure I'll have some simulator days this year. But I don't know if I'll drive the '17 car at all on a circuit, and actually we haven't had that conversation yet. But there are something like 25 days of testing next year - it's massive.

So they might ask me to drive it at some point, to get my feedback, but also to have me race-ready in case I need to jump in.

F1R: Shame that you're stopping before you get to try the new formula... (For a while now Jenson has been vocal about wanting to race faster cars, which the new aerodynamics regulations and wider tyres will bring next year.)

JB: Yeah, but that formula isn't going away, it will still be around in 2018. I'd rather be in a winning car with the current regulations than a car in eighth or ninth with next year's regs. You know what I mean? So I like the idea of where the sport is going but if you're not going to win...

F1R: Did you ever think you would be in Formula 1 this long?

JB: No, never. I remember when I was about 20 and I'd just signed for Williams and I was talking with my dad about a driver who was in his thirties - I think it was Damon Hill - and I said to him 'I won't be racing in my thirties. Ten years in Formula 1...' and now I've done 17. So time does fly and people struggle to find anything else in their life to do when they're good at one thing.

F1R: But your longevity is down to your consistency. Look at someone like Jaime Alguersuari he was the youngest person to enter F1 and then one of the youngest to retire from it.

JB: Look at McLaren. This is a team that is normally full of very talented drivers and high-achievers. Heikki Kovalainen was here for two years, Sergio Perez for one year, K-Mag [Kevin Magnussen] for one year, and this is my seventh season with them.

So there's a lot of pressure on Stoffel. He's the best-prepared driver there can be, but there is a lot of pressure coming into such a big team that has achieved so much. The drivers who have raced here and who have been on their books - and still are on their books...

F1R: There were initial conversations with Williams, but they came to nothing. Would you have considered driving for them or for a team like Force India next year?

JB: They have their own objectives and see a long-term future with a driver, and both of those two teams could do well. But, again, I don't want to race next year. A team that can win over the next couple of years is here and it's going to be an exciting challenge with the new regulations.

The whole thing is about not racing. I went to Ron's office and said: "I don't want to race in 2017." I didn't say anything else but that.

F1R: What was his reaction?

JB: He said to me: "Give it a couple more weeks and see how you feel, then come back to me and we'll talk about it." I said: "There's no point Ron, this is my feeling right now and I've already had weeks to think about it. I need to start my life basically."

Then we started talking about the possibilities of racing and he said: "Why don't you take a year off?" and added "We'll see how you feel in 2018. When you come back, you'll be even better than you are now. Michael's done it, Mika's done it, Alain Prost did it."

He said: "Fitness and age are not an issue, and if you've got more drive to come back and be competitive, then I'll get back a better Jenson." I responded: "Am I not doing a good enough job now?" He replied that I was doing "a superb job", but that this way I would come back even better than before.

F1R: Tell us where you were when you had the epiphany that you didn't want to race next year. What were you doing over the summer that brought about this decision?

JB: I just had an amazing time. I didn't think about Formula 1 at all. I was with my friends and family - actually I was with family in London for the last few days. I was with one of my sisters and I was able to relax and just be me.

I probably see my family only five times a year and three of those are at grands prix or Goodwood.

I need time with my family; time has flown by and the kids in my family have grown up. I have a niece who's 31 and has five kids. I can also do stuff I haven't done for 17 years such as Ironman, maybe driving a rallycross car and travelling the world on my terms and seeing places I want to see, rather than fitting in with the F1 schedule.

And also living at home, waking up in my bed, living a normal life...

F1R: If you do return in 2018 after a year on your own time, it's going to be a shock to the system...

JB: [Laughs] I know - especially if it's 35 races by then. It's an interesting time for the sport.

New owners will change the sport and hopefully make it bigger in America - but not, I hope, too big as a lot of drivers like going to America on holiday because no one knows who we are. They will encourage social media and get youngsters involved; that's probably something Bernie isn't good at.

It's about getting youth interested in F1. The people who are still watching it from when I started are in their 30s and 40s.

We need more youngsters, and I've heard they're going to keep historic circuits and races on the calendar - which is fantastic. It's interesting and hopefully a positive step.