Jenson Button’s ‘jealousy’ of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll over Adrian Newey cars

Jenson Button says that he’s “jealous” of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, explaining that he’d love the chance to drive a car penned by Adrian Newey.

Button, the 2009 F1 World Champion, joined Aston Martin as a team ambassador in February, having signed a multi-year deal to support Lawrence Stroll’s squad in its media, partner, and commercial programmes.

Jenson Button admits Adrian Newey car envy at Aston Martin

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Button’s move to join Aston Martin has reunited him with former teammate Fernando Alonso, with the two World Champions once forming a formidable driver line-up at McLaren a decade ago.

The British driver retired from Formula 1 after 2016, although he did make a one-off appearance for McLaren at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, before embarking on a post-F1 career in Super GT and sportscar racing; he retired from professional motorsport entirely at the conclusion of the 2025 racing season.

Having joined Aston Martin, Button said that being able to see how famed car designer Adrian Newey operates has been eye-opening. Having spent his F1 career racing against cars designed by Newey, Button, like Alonso, never had the chance to take the wheel of a Newey-penned machine, and said he’s jealous of the two Aston Martin drivers this year.

“I’d love to drive one of these new-generation cars, especially one designed by Adrian Newey,” he said in his first column for the Aston Martin website.

“I’ve raced against a lot of his cars over the years and always wondered what it would be like to work with him. I guess you could say I’m a little bit jealous of Lance and Fernando in this respect.”

Newey has overseen the designs of some of the most successful F1 cars of all time, including the dominant Red Bull RB18 and RB7s, the McLaren MP4/13, and the Williams FW14B.

Button took the opportunity to drop a major hint that he’d like the opportunity to climb behind the wheel of one of Newey’s cars, perhaps suggesting that one of the non-competitive outings, such as a demonstration or filming day run, would be up his alley.

“I really would jump at the chance to drive one of Adrian’s cars,” he said.

“A demo run perhaps? But 24 races in a season… I’m too old for that!”

With Newey operating as Aston Martin’s team principal this year, alongside his managing technical partner role, Button said seeing the 67-year-old steadfastly stick to his tried-and-tested methods has been special to witness.

“Seeing Adrian operate up close is fascinating,” he said.

“He’s very old school – notebook in hand, sketching ideas on a drawing board – but that’s part of what makes him such a master. He really is.

“And yes, I may have tried to sneak a peek at his notebook… he noticed.”

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With Button only a year older than Alonso, whose career in the top flight of motorsport has continued for a decade beyond the British driver’s, he said he sees no slowdown from the Spaniard.

“I raced alongside him for a couple of years, and although they weren’t the easiest years in the sport for both of us, the one thing I had, the one true benchmark, if you like, was Fernando as my team-mate,” he said.

“Trying to go out there and beat someone like Fernando in equal machinery was a real challenge – and I loved that challenge. Seeing his work ethic, but also how he had fun out of the car – he’s a really good character. 10 years later, none of that has changed about Fernando.”

While Button might be jealous of the opportunity afforded to Alonso and Stroll as they drive Newey’s latest creation, the AMR26 may take some time to deliver upon its potential after a very troubled start to the season.

This has come about as a consequence of a lack of reliability from the new Honda power unit, which may have come about from late integration changes requested by Newey. It’s led to debilitating levels of vibration through the entire car, creating reliability issues and intense discomfort for the drivers.

But Newey has indicated that he believes the chassis is amongst the top five on the grid at the very start of the new rules cycle, indicating fundamental potential as the team embarks on its development programme alongside Honda’s roll-out of countermeasures to combat the vibration issues.

Alongside that, Newey is also hunting for a new, long-term team principal to fill the role he currently occupies. As revealed by PlanetF1.com on Wednesday, Newey began this hunt in late 2025, and has seen him approach names such as GianPiero Lambiase, Mattia Binotto, Andreas Seidl, and Jonathan Wheatley.

Wheatley is understood to have been identified as Newey’s primary target and, on Friday, was confirmed as leaving Audi with immediate effect. However, a statement shortly after this confirmation came from Aston Martin, in which team owner Lawrence Stroll expressed his confidence in Newey’s leadership and indicated a new arrival’s announcement is not imminent.

As it stands, Wheatley’s future is therefore uncertain.

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