The Formula 1 driver market may have been quiet last season, but a significant off-track move has just taken place.

Jenson Button has joined Aston Martin as a brand ambassador on a multi-year agreement, ahead of the 2026 season. The Brit, who debuted in F1 with Williams back in 2000, spent last year working with the same team.

His return to F1 comes as Aston Martin look to expand their reach and presence under the ownership of Lawrence Stroll. Button’s appointment adds more experience to a lineup that already includes Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Button and Alonso have history together from their time as McLaren teammates in 2015 and 2016, two seasons that were challenging for the team overall. Despite those struggles, Button sees this role at Aston Martin as an opportunity to help both drivers navigate what is expected to be a pivotal year for Adrian Newey’s team.

Jenson Button Wants to Ease the Pressure on Fernando Alonso During Aston Martin Race Weekends

Speaking to The Athletic, Button gave some insight into how he sees his new role at Aston Martin. He said: “I won’t be telling [Alonso and Stroll] how to drive. They know how to do that bit.

“But I think over race weekends, I’ll be spending a lot of time with sponsors, partners, and probably lifting the load a little bit from the guys that really need to concentrate on driving.

“This year is going to be an intense season with everything being new within the team, and getting to grips with how to drive this car.

He added: “The power unit is very different, with the power output, but also how it produces power and also when the batteries run out of charge. It’s something very different.

“Basically, the drivers have to think on their feet a little bit more, rather than just knowing what’s going to happen. It’s living in the moment, which is really exciting.”

The former world champion has also spoken highly of Aston Martin’s ambitions for their F1 future. He said: “It is a great time to really show what you can do.”

“I don’t think it’s a one-year thing here at Aston Martin. It’s definitely going to be over the next few years, but the fight back to the front is definitely there and alive.

“With having Honda as partners in the team… as the works team… I see no reason that that won’t happen.”

Why Flavio Briatore chose Fernando Alonso over Jenson Button

Button started in F1 a year before Alonso, beginning with Williams before moving to Benetton under Flavio Briatore.

Alonso, meanwhile, made a big impression during his 2001 debut season with Minardi. That led Briatore to bring him back into the fold quickly.

By the middle of the 2002 season, Button was replaced by Alonso. As quoted by Autosport, Briatore said he was “sorry to see Jenson go, as he has done a superb job for us this season.”

Button went on to join BAR and finished third in the drivers’ standings in 2004. Meanwhile, Alonso became a two-time world champion in the same seat over the following two years.

Despite their time at McLaren being far from straightforward, Alonso has since called Button the best teammate he’s had in F1.

Their paths crossed again when Alonso skipped Monaco for the Indy 500 in 2017. Button stepped in but ended up causing a crash that left him with a penalty that still follows him today.

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Christian Horner is in talks with Otro Capital about buying their shares in the Alpine F1 team, but he’s hit a significant hurdle that’s slowing down progress on the deal.

The former Red Bull boss has told a confidante about one roadblock he is still facing to get the deal over the line. Horner’s situation comes after Flavio Briatore confirmed during Alpine’s 2026 F1 season launch event that negotiations were underway.

Having been dismissed from his role as team principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing last summer, Horner has no interest in returning to an organisation unless he holds ownership stakes. It’s a move aimed at preventing similar circumstances from happening again. {{INSTAGRAM_PLACEHOLDER_3}}

Why F1 Investors Are Hesitant to Sell Shares, Even with Prices Surging

Speaking on De Telegraaf’s F1 podcast, former driver Christijan Albers recounted a recent run-in with Horner at an auction in Paris. The two spoke for over an hour, with Albers sharing some insights into how Horner is feeling about life away from Red Bull.

“He came up to me, and I just stood there talking to him for an hour. And he is still trying to keep a little contact with Max. He has this feeling, he doesn’t know if the team is better off,” said Albers.

“But I just spoke to him very honestly. We had a moment, talked about his departure, what he thought of it, and what I thought about it. At a certain point, it’s a situation that simply can’t be sustained anymore. And he agreed with that himself. At a certain point, it wasn’t possible anymore.”

When asked if Horner mentioned anything about the Alpine move or any other plans in the pipeline during their conversation, Albers explained:

“So he told me that he has enough backers behind him to see if there’s a possibility. But few teams want to sell because the value has skyrocketed of course. And that’s why a lot of teams are holding on to their shares for now.”

If Renault ends up blocking Horner’s attempt to buy Otro Capital’s stake in Alpine outright due to his prior links and controversy surrounding Red Bull allegations before leaving the organisation, Racing Bulls could become the backup plan.

The company hasn’t shown any real interest in selling Racing Bulls before but Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff still keeps in touch with Horner and may consider focusing more resources on Red Bull themselves by offloading RB50 soon enough.

Alpine’s move to Mercedes engines adds another layer to Christian Horner’s pursuit of a stake in the team, says Christijan Albers

Alpine finished last in the constructors’ standings the previous season, capping off a difficult stretch for the team. That situation might have presented an opening for Horner to move forward with his bid.

Now, with 2026 underway, there’s a renewed sense of optimism around Alpine thanks to their switch to Mercedes power units, which many see as setting the standard across the grid.

Albers believes this change has made Otro Capital even more hesitant. He explained: “What I also find interesting is that you must also imagine that they want to see this season as well because last year, they didn’t really have a fantastic season. With all due respect.”

“Now they are, of course, getting the Mercedes engine. Maybe they have something in the pipeline that we don’t know about,” Albers continued.

“Maybe the car can perform better. That only ensures that the value becomes even more valuable.”

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Adrian Newey admits he was unsure what design philosophy to pursue with Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car as the team principal spoke about his unique approach for the first time.

Aston only featured for one full day of last week’s private pre-season test in Barcelona but shocked onlookers when their car, the AMR26, was revealed on the penultimate day.

The car is extremely unique compared to the rest of the field, with the nose (wider than normal), sidepods (thin with a heavy undercut) and engine cover (cut away) all different to their competitors.

Yet F1 design legend Newey, who moved from Red Bull after 20 years last March and became Aston Martin team principal at the end of the 2025 season, acknowledged that there is a degree of unknown to the sport’s new engine and chassis regulations and, as such, is cautious about the approach he has taken.

Newey, who is on a contract worth £20m-a-year, told Aston Martin’s website: “We took a really close look at the regulations and what we believe we want to achieve from a flow field perspective to suit them, and from there started to evolve a geometry that attempts to create the flow fields that we want.

“It's very much a holistic approach. But, in truth, with a completely new set of regulations, nobody is ever sure what the right philosophy is. We certainly aren't sure what the best interpretation of the regulations is and therefore the best philosophy to follow.

"Because of our compressed timescale, we decided on a particular direction and that's the one we've pursued. Whether that proves to be the right one or not, only time will tell. But you have to choose your path and get on with it."

Newey revealed that a model of the 2026 car did not enter the team’s new wind-tunnel until last April, putting them behind some rival teams from the get-go.

“That put us on the back foot by about four months, which has meant a very, very compressed research and design cycle,” he added. “The car only came together at the last minute, which is why we were fighting to make it to the Barcelona shakedown.

"Whenever a car is about hit the track for the first time, it's always a nervous moment. The team put in a huge amount of work to get the car ready.

“There's more to come – and lots to learn – but those first couple of days at the track have been important to start building an understanding of how the car behaves and complete those all-important first systems checks before pre-season testing in Bahrain."

Given the unorthodox design of the car, many have perceived Newey’s approach as “aggressive’ as he looks to fire Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll up the pecking order. Yet Newey swerved away from such labels.

"I never look at any of my designs as aggressive. I just get on with things and pursue what we feel is the right direction,” he said.

"The direction we've taken could certainly be interpreted as aggressive,” he stated. “It's got quite a few features that haven't necessarily been done before. Does that make it aggressive? Possibly. Possibly not.

"We've attempted to build something that we hope will have quite a lot of development potential. What you want to try to avoid is a car that comes out quite optimised within its window but lacks a lot of development potential.

“We've tried to do the opposite, which is why we've really focused on the fundamentals, put our effort into those, knowing that some of the appendages – wings, bodywork, things that can be changed in season – will hopefully have development potential."

Aston will undertake a maximum of six days of pre-season testing with two windows in Bahrain (11-13 February and 18-20 February) alongside the other 10 teams. The 2026 F1 season starts with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 8 March.