[1] He is the fourth child of the half-South African Simone Lyons and former rallycross driver John Button from London's East End, who was well known in the United Kingdom during most of the 1970s for racing his Volkswagen Type 1, which was nicknamed the Colorado Beetle.

The family telephoned Spencer for advice; he and Button's father constructed the young boy's karts and influenced his school headteacher to change his fitness regime and had to eschew unhealthy beverages.

[b][28] Robertson wanted Button to test a Carlin Motorsport Dallara F3 Mugen-Honda car at the Pembrey Circuit and quickly became acclimated with a more powerful vehicle and extra downforce.

[32][33] Huysman and Robertson sought a seat for him in F3 and spoke to Promatecme team owner Serge Saulnier, who did not want to sign Button because he was not part of Renault's driver academy.

[34] Button drove in the British Formula 3 International Series in 1999 in a slightly underpowered Renault-Dallara F399 car compared to the Mugen-Honda engine,[27][30][32] with guidance from trainer-physiotherapist Josef Leberer.

[60][61] In late 2001, Briatore invited Button to spend ten days at a ranch in Kenya,[60] to become acquainted with his peers and do physical training to eliminate a shoulder and back problem that had hindered him in 2001.

Button's performances were greatly improved from 2001 because his car had power steering and launch control; although often outqualified by Trulli, he showed the faster race pace to outscore his more experienced teammate.

[10] In July, Button signed a two-year contract with British American Racing (BAR) with the option for a further two years after that to replace the outgoing Olivier Panis,[64] partnering 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, after discussions with several teams fell through.

[69] Just before the final race in Japan, Villeneuve lost his seat at BAR, so Button was partnered with Takuma Sato; he took his second fourth place of the season,[67] and finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with 17 points.

[82] After the United States Grand Prix, Button scored in all of the remaining races with two third-place finishes in Germany and Belgium to end the season in ninth place on 37 points.

[83] Frank Williams insisted the contract was fully binding, and that there would be "absolutely no turning back"; his team required Button to fulfill some contractual obligations with sponsors.

[87] He had been frustrated by not converting his increasing experience and confidence in his driving into success in 2005 and was excited about Honda's car and engine development enabling race victory challenges.

Although he was installed by bookmakers as a 100–1 outsider for the championship, Button's Brawn BGP 001 car was quick and reliable in pre-season testing in Europe due to an efficient aerodynamic package, a powerful Mercedes-Benz V8 engine and grippy slick tyres.

[f][104][105] Once the major teams had introduced their own reconfigured diffusers Button's dominance ended, averaging sixth position in the following ten races and scoring 35 points after accumulating 61 in the first seven.

[102] This was due to the team spending 10 per cent of its allocated £7 million budget on developing the car and Button's smooth driving style preventing him from generating heat into its tyres in cold weather.

[119] He won the rain-affected Canadian Grand Prix after two collisions dropped him to the back of the field and overtaking Vettel when the latter ran wide on the slippery track on the final lap.

[132] He finished third at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified for a fuel flow consumption infringement and his team lost a subsequent appeal against the decision.

[l][139] Button struggled in 2015 due to an unreliable and an underpowered Honda engine lacking straightline speed,[30] securing four top-ten finishes and a best result of sixth at the United States Grand Prix.

[155] Button became interested in Super GT in about 2011,[156] and discussions with Honda led to his series debut at the 2017 Suzuka 1000km in a NSX-GT for Team Mugen with teammates Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima.

[161] He and Yamamoto won at Sportsland Sugo and took two-second-place finishes to enter the season-ending race at Twin Ring Motegi equal on points with the TOM'S duo of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy.

[164] In an incident-filled season, Button and Yamamoto were taken out of the lead in the opening round at Okayama,[165] a mistimed safety car at the second Fuji race and a poor tyre choice in the rain at Sugo cost the team possible victories.

[167] In October 2019, he drove the final two races of the season-ending Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) round at the Hockenheimring in his Team Kunimitsu NSX car as Honda's wild card entry.

[171] Button made his endurance racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Spa, sharing a BMW Team Raffanelli 320i E46 with David Saelens and Tomáš Enge in the SP class, and retiring after 22 laps with fuel tank failure.

[172][173] Button agreed to drive most of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship sharing a BR Engineering BR1 car in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin for SMP Racing.

[m][174][175] Making his FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, electronic problems dropped the car down the order before the team retired with an engine failure late in the race with Button driving at the time.

[182] He entered the ten-hour Petit Le Mans (part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship) driving JDC–Miller MotorSports' Porsche 963 alongside Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm after broadcasting commitments prevented his entry to the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

[192] In 2019, Button drove off-road races in a Rocket Motorsports-entered Brenthel Industries Spec 6100 TT class truck with Buncombe and managing director Mazen Fawaz his co-drivers.

[218] Button worked with car builder Ant Anstead, designer Mark Stubbs and business adviser Roger Behle to relaunch luxury coach maker Radford in early 2021.

[226] Button is part of Johnnie Walker's Join The Pact initiative to promote responsible drinking,[227] and began the Pink for Papa campaign in 2014 following the death of his father to raise funding for the Henry Surtees Foundation.

"[72] Writing for The New York Times, Brad Spurgeon said that Button's F1 debut began a trend of teams signing young drivers and how they would cope with pressure, performance and the media in the championship.