The 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s greatest motorsport endurance race, gets underway later today.
And one of the drivers taking part in this competition will have the chance to join one of the most exclusive clubs in motorsport.
Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula One Drivers’ Champion, returns to Le Mans this season. A year ago, Button made his Le Mans debut driving for Hendrick Motorsports’ Garage 56, finishing 39th.
But this year Button is driving for Hertz Team Jota, which qualified 17th in the race that is part of motorsport’s Triple Crown, and if Button can be part of a winning team at Le Mans he would become just the sixth F1 champion in motorsport history to taste victory at Le Mans.
Mike Hawthorn was the first driver to win both the F1 Drivers’ Championship and Le Mans, but his first taste of victory came in an endurance race, winning with Jaguar in 1955. He then won the F1 title three years later in 1958 with Ferrari.
Next came Phil Hill, who, like Hawthorn, was the first to reach the pinnacle of endurance racing. Together with Olivier Gendebien, Hill won Le Mans with Ferrari in 1958, the first of his three Le Mans victories. He and Gendebien then won Le Mans again with Ferrari in 1961, while Hill also won the F1 Drivers’ Championship with Ferrari.
The next driver to win both titles was Jochen Rindt, but his history is one of the saddest in motorsport: Rindt was part of the team that won Le Mans in 1965 and then drove for Lotus-Ford in the 1970 F1 season to a commanding lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
However, during practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, Rindt’s Lotus suffered a brake shaft failure and crashed heavily near Parabolica corner, tragically dying from his injuries. Despite his tragic death with four races remaining in the season, Rindt’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship was unassailable and he was awarded the F1 title posthumously.
Graham Hill is the only driver to have won all three of motorsport’s Triple Crown races, winning the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He first won the Formula One Drivers’ Championship in 1962 with BRM, but it wasn’t until 1972 that he finally won at Le Mans in his tenth and final appearance, winning alongside Henri Pescarolo in a Matra-Simca.
Hill is the only driver to have won all three of motorsport’s Triple Crown races.
The fifth and final member of this club? Fernando Alonso, who won back-to-back F1 titles in 2005 and 2006, then did the same at Le Mans, winning both 2018 and 2019 with Toyota Gazoo Racing.
If Button tastes victory this weekend, he will become just the sixth member of that club.
And that’s definitely something he’s aiming for.
“There is a good chance we can fight for the win at Le Mans. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it.” Button said last year.“After my career so far, I’m not interested in just being on the gridiron.”
We will know in the next 36 hours if he joins that club.
