After a debut outing in Super GT’s showpiece Suzuka 1000km race last year, Button was strongly linked with a full-time move to the Japanese series for 2018. A deal with Honda was formally confirmed in December.

It's now been announced that the 2009 F1 World Champion will drive an NSX-GT for Team Kunimitsu, run by multiple 250cc race winner and one-time F1 Grand Prix starter Kunimitsu Takahashi.

Button will team up with 2013 Super Formula Champion and multiple Super GT race winner Naoki Yamamoto, who has been retained by the squad for a fourth consecutive season.

Button replaces 2009 championship runner-up Takuya Izawa at the Bridgestone-shod outfit, the 33-year-old returning to ARTA after a period of eight years alongside Tomoki Nojiri.

As part of the reshuffle, Takashi Kobayashi has been dropped from Honda’s Super GT roster, despite picking up a win alongside Nojiri at Fuji last year.

Elsewhere, Mugen, which gave Button his Super GT debut last year, has retained both Daisuke Nakajima and Hideki Mutoh. There are no changes at Real Racing either, with Koudai Tsukakoshi and Takashi Kogure staying on for another year.

Nakajima Racing will also field an unchanged line-up of Kosuke Matsuura and Bertrand Baguette, the latter being Honda’s only other international driver apart from Button.

Honda’s Super GT line-up: