Jenson Button on sleep deprivation at Le Mans: "I've got two kids, I know what it's like not sleeping"

When you go to the Le Mans 24 Hours as a journalist, there’s a list of evergreen topics that come up every year: traffic, rain, nighttime driving, traffic again… and sleep.

The schedule can be gruelling for drivers, with practice running until 12am on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and media commitments in the morning. On Saturday and Sunday, it’s easy for the 24-hour race to turn into a 36-hour day, from Saturday morning – when you want to be at the track early to beat the traffic – to Sunday night.

Does it get more difficult as drivers age? On the contrary, Cadillac Jota driver Jenson Button reckons his fatherly experience gives him the edge.

“A 22-year-old doesn’t have kids, most of the time, so they don't know what sleep deprivation is yet until they get here – so it's more of a shock,” said 45-year-old Button. “For me, I've got two kids, I know what it's like not sleeping.

“I'm also very good at sleeping anyway – I could go on that couch and within two minutes be asleep. So I'm very, very lucky. So when I get out of the car, I eat, I shower, I'm straight to sleep. I have no issues with that, so I'm one of the lucky ones.

“I think last year, Seb [Bourdais] said that he struggled to sleep. But last year when we had the safety car through the night, I was driving for three and a half hours behind the safety car, which is the most boring three and a half hours of my life – but that meant that all the other drivers could sleep really well, they were in the paddock. Hopefully that won't be the case this year!”

#38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button

Button also reflected on his peculiar experience driving a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with Hendrick Motorsports in the 2023 running of the race – his second-ever appearance at La Sarthe – via the Garage 56 innovative entry.

“I had the chance to race the NASCAR Cup car here, which initially was like, ‘that's just nuts, why would I want to drive a NASCAR around the clock?’ And then I got involved with the testing program, it was so much fun to drive and the atmosphere was great – and also how serious they took it, how professional Hendrick were,” the Briton recalled.

“And to come here with a Garage 56 and be as competitive as it was, and nobody thought it would be anywhere near the GTEs… it was a lot of fun.

“I remember the drivers' briefing, they said that when the NASCAR went through the Porsche curves they were going to put white flags out, because they thought it would be so slow. And we ended up outqualifying all the GTE cars, so it was a nice, fun car to drive, and a good experience for the whole team.

“But obviously I wanted to come back in a car that could fight for a win in Hypercars, so that's why the Jota story started with the Porsche 963, and then with it becoming a manufacturer team this year, I jumped at the chance to be racing here with the Cadillac.”

Photos from 24 Hours of Le Mans – Wednesday

#38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button

Rainier Ehrhardt

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries

Rainier Ehrhardt

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Rainier Ehrhardt

#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9x8: Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen, Stoffel Vandoorne

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#101 Cadillac WTR Cadillac V-Series.R: Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Rainier Ehrhardt

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Will Stevens, Norman Nato, Alex Lynn

Andreas Beil

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Andreas Beil

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell

Andreas Beil

#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Julien Andlauer, Michael Christensen, Mathieu Jaminet

Andreas Beil

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen

Alexander Trienitz

#92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz

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Detail, #50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P

Andreas Beil

#38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button

Rainier Ehrhardt

Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota Gazoo Racing

Alexander Trienitz

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen, #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Will Stevens, Norman Nato, Alex Lynn

Nikolaz Godet

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: René Rast

Andreas Beil

Red flag

Andreas Beil

#4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Pascal Wehrlein

Alexander Trienitz

#009 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen, Roman De Angelis

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#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Sarah Bovy

Alexander Trienitz

#311 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-SeriesR: Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich, Frederik Vesti

Alexander Trienitz

##38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-SeriesR: Sebastien Bourdais

Alexander Trienitz

#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Kelvin Van Der Linde

Alexander Trienitz

#63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3: Stephen Grove, Brenton Grove, Luca Stolz

Alexander Trienitz

#33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3R: Ben Keating-

Alexander Trienitz

#77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3: Ben Tuck

Alexander Trienitz

#4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Pascal Wehrlein

Alexander Trienitz

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell

Alexander Trienitz

#63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3: Stephen Grove, Brenton Grove, Luca Stolz

Andreas Beil

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen, #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: René Rast, Robin Frijns, Sheldon Van Der Linde

Andreas Beil

Robert Kubica flag

Andreas Beil

#007 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, Ross Gunn

Alexander Trienitz

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina

Alexander Trienitz

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina

Alexander Trienitz

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Andreas Beil

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher, Frederic Makowiecki, Jules Gounon

Alexander Trienitz

Atmosphere

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#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Kelvin Van Der Linde, #31 The Bend Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Augusto Farfus

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Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport

Andreas Beil

#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Valentino Rossi

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#101 Cadillac WTR Cadillac V-SeriesR: Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Alexander Trienitz

#99 Proton Competition Porsche 963: Neel Jani, Nicolas Pino, Nicolas Varrone

Alexander Trienitz

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Celia Martin, Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy

Alexander Trienitz

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

AG Photo

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Will Stevens, Norman Nato, Alex Lynn

Nikolaz Godet

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries, #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: George Kurtz, Nicky Catsburg, Alexander Quinn

Nikolaz Godet

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Celia Martin, Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy

Nikolaz Godet

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Alexander Trienitz

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell

Rainier Ehrhardt

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Will Stevens, Norman Nato, Alex Lynn

Rainier Ehrhardt

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Celia Martin, Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy

Rainier Ehrhardt

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher, Frederic Makowiecki, Jules Gounon

Rainier Ehrhardt

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Nyck De Vries

Rainier Ehrhardt

#101 Cadillac WTR Cadillac V-Series.R: Jordan Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque

Rainier Ehrhardt

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Alexander Trienitz

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Alexander Trienitz

#31 The Bend Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Yasser Shahin, Timur Boguslavskiy, Augusto Farfus

Rainier Ehrhardt

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher, Frederic Makowiecki, Jules Gounon

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#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9x8: Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne

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#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

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#311 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R: Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich, Frederik Vesti

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