“I want to spend more time with friends, family and to do other things”.
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‘The average age is much too high for what it should be, given that we have an 18-year-old on the grid in Max Verstappen. I think them being American is a positive, bringing the sport more to the States and getting people there more interested in the sport. “I think the average age is 30s, maybe early 40s”.
“To make that real we need to work very hard over the next months, and we need to accelerate the process because in Formula 1 no-one waits forever”. The 2009 world champion has said he will continue competing in triathlons next year, something he has been doing in his free time for the last few years.
Button showed journalists in the Singapore paddock footage he had filmed of a large crowd playing the Pokemon game on Wednesday evening. But they [Liberty Media] have an idea of what young people want with social media and technology.
‘It is a very technologically-advanced sport, so you would think there is a lot of interest, but there isn’t from youngsters. “As soon as youngsters sink their teeth into the sport, they’re going to love it”.
“This was last night in the shopping mall, all these people all working one way. Why?”
“I don’t even know what you do with them”. Pokemon”, he said. “There must’ve been 2,000 people all walking to one spot, through the shopping mall and across the road, because there’s a Pokemon there.
“I don’t know if I will have that chance, if Stoffel [Vandoorne, his team-mate in 2017] will have that chance”. Do you win money? Do you get presents or chocolate?
Button, who claimed the last of his 15 grand prix victories in Brazil four years ago, believes Formula One will benefit from a raft of technical and sporting rule changes for the 2017 season if they lead to a reining in of dominant Mercedes.
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Button also said his “sabbatical” could be more like Alain Prost’s than Mika Hakkinen’s, because while the Finn didn’t ever return, Prost came back to win a title.
