Button Has “Options” to Drive in GTP or Hypercar Next Year

Jenson Button says he has “options” to race in the top class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or the FIA World Endurance Championship next year.

The 2009 Formula 1 world champion is making his top-level prototype racing return this weekend at Motul Petit Le Mans driving a JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963.

Button has previously mentioned his desire to get back into sports car racing and those possibilities are coming into focus as the current season begins to wrap up.

After exiting Formula 1 in 2016, the British driver won the 2018 Super GT title with Honda and raced in the LMP1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with SMP Racing.

“I have a couple of options in WEC and I have an option here to do full-season,” Button told Sportscar365 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

“I have an option to do the [IMSA] enduros. There’s no point in me doing it unless I can actually put the time in and have the testing needed because I’d still like to test more things.

“I can jump in the car and be relatively competitive on lap time, but my strength is more setting up the car.

“I can’t do that here [at Petit Le Mans] because I don’t have the time. But I don’t need to, to be fair, because Rocky [Mike Rockenfeller] is amazing at that. But I want to do a program that I know I can test enough and be at my best, otherwise there is no point.”

Button acknowledged that he has been in discussions with JOTA about a potential WEC Hypercar seat. The British team is planning for an expanded two-car effort with customer Porsche 963s meaning that multiple places could open up.

There is also a vacant spot at JDC-Miller considering Button’s Petit Le Mans co-driver Rockenfeller was yesterday confirmed as a full-time Ford GTD Pro driver for next season.

However, Button currently doesn’t have any further tests lined up with the Minnesota-based squad.

“Yes, I have spoken to them,” he said when asked about talks with JOTA. “I think that’s a cool team. I think they’ll do well.

“Penske have put so much time and effort into this car. They’re going to be quicker than us [because] they know this car way better than us. But then there’s the positives.

“They’ve been able to do a year of testing, whereas JDC would never be able to do that. We’re able to see what they do with the car and we get most of the information.

“So we don’t have to do as much testing, which is helpful. I think, for a team like JDC or JOTA, they’ve got to make sure they’re able to do enough testing and they’re not limited in that because of budget or something else.

“These cars are so complicated. We can go out there and be relatively quick, but to fine-tune it, it takes a while.”

Button also revealed that he has been in contact with a factory team without identifying it or mentioning which championship it races in, but stated a personal preference to work with a privateer outfit.

He also ruled out racing in GT3 because of his preference to drive without ABS.

“That doesn’t interest me so much, I have to say,” he said when asked about driving for a works outfit. “I’ve been with the factories so much.

“I think it’s great and amazing for the sport. We need it. In WEC it’s unreal. It’s so cool that we have so many factory teams and OEMs coming to fight it out in the biggest endurance race in the world, and they just keep coming!

“I have talked to one factory team. Whether that’s the route I would take, I’m not sure.

“I really like the teams that are there to race because they love racing. They’re not there to sell cars. I know the teams here that are manufacturers still want to race, win and have that buzz.

“But this is like a family-run team here. If they can be as competitive as the manufacturers, I’d rather be somewhere like this.”