Jenson Button to reunite with his Brawn F1 car at the 83rd Members’ Meeting

Button, who announced his retirement from professional racing in 2025 and finished his career with the Cadillac Hertz Team Jota team in the World Endurance Championship in November, will return to the cockpit of an F1 car barely five months later for two incredibly exciting runs in April. 

The story of that 2009 F1 season has been consigned to sporting legend — a team doomed to fall into the void brought back from the brink to conquer the world.  

It was Ross Brawn who purchased the embers of Honda’s abandoned venture for £1 and quite brilliantly guided the team back onto the grid for the opening round of the Championship. The efforts of him and his team was the stuff of fairytales. 

The Brawn GP car in its iconic white and fluorescent yellow livery, almost entirely devoid of sponsorship but for the early support of Richard Branson’s Virgin brand, very quickly gained a cult following.  

That was only exacerbated when it arrived late for pre-season testing and immediately went 1.5 seconds quicker than the rest of the field, and Brawn’s desperation to get the 2009 car he had developed with Honda’s substantial funding was very quickly explained. 

Three teams, Toyota, Williams and Brawn GP, had exploited a loophole in 2009’s brand new set of regulations to develop what quickly became known as the ‘double diffuser’. Essentially a way of generating a huge amount of downforce, the double diffuser was a huge performance benefit, and it made the Brawn BGP001 pretty much unbeatable. 

But it wasn’t all down to the diffuser, because not even Williams or Toyota could get close to the pace of Brawn drivers Button and Rubens Barrichello, and Button in particular had struck a chord with his car. 

He stormed to victory in six of the first seven races, building a massive lead in the Championship as he dominated at the wheel of his extraordinary car. 

But the title was still far from reach, especially for a Brawn team that were running on a shoestring. The far superior spending power of teams like Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari began to tell, and Button’s performance advantage was demolished almost overnight at the British Grand Prix. 

Fortunately for him, the remaining ten race victories were shared between four drivers, and although Sebastian Vettel came close, Button’s early-season dominance was ultimately enough to land him the World Championship. 

The scenes at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix, as Brawn GP sealed both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Titles after an epic comeback drive from Button left not a single dry eye in the house. They were the peoples’ champions, and absolutely no-one could begrudge the success of this team that had come within days of collapse. 

Those memories will all come flooding back when Button returns to the cockpit of the Brawn BGP001 for what is bound to be an electrifying demonstration at the 83^rd Members’ Meeting. 

For old and new fans alike, this is going to be special one. Everyone knows the story of that 2009 season, and we’re going to have a chance to experience it first hand when that Mercedes V8 fires up for some memorable laps around the Goodwood Motor Circuit. 

It’ll be the first time Button has ever driven his Championship-winning car at Goodwood, having only driven it a handful of times since that fabled season, so this is an incredibly rare opportunity to experience one of motorsport’s most legendary partnerships first hand.

“I am excited to be making my Members' Meeting debut," Button said. "And in no less special a car than the Brawn BGP 001.

"I last had a chance to drive it back in 2019, which was incredibly emotional and quite surreal. I cannot wait to experience that feeling all over again, and where better than Goodwood!”

The 83^rd Members' Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport takes place on the 18^th & 19^th April 2026. Tickets are on sale now for GRRC Members and Fellows

You can sign up for the Fellowship now. Click here to find out more.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.