Button: I think we can do something very special
Jenson Button is in bullish mood ahead of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s curtain-raising contest in Qatar later this month (26-28 February), predicting that Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA ‘should be hitting the ground running and racing for the win’.
Button is entering his second full season at the international pinnacle of the discipline, having tallied five consecutive top ten finishes last year. For the forthcoming campaign, the 2009 Formula 1 World Champion will team up with fellow ex-grand prix star Sébastien Bourdais and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber behind the wheel of the Anglo-American alliance’s #38 Cadillac V-Series.R – and he has high hopes.
“I can’t wait!” Button enthused. “I’m looking forward to going back to a circuit where I have fond memories. We have to build upon that with the Cadillac; its performance last year seemed to be very good.
“This is such a great team, bringing together two different families in Cadillac and JOTA. Already, you can see how well everyone is working. We bring a lot of excitement and a lot of combined experience, and I think we can do something very special. We want to start on a high; we don’t want to build up to it. We should be hitting the ground running in Qatar and racing for the win.”
Button spent last season in the JOTA fold, with the British outfit – which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary – preparing to join the FIA WEC Hypercar ‘works’ ranks for the first time, buoyed by two decades of success as a privateer. Recent highlights include back-to-back FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams’ trophies in 2023 and 2024 and an historic outright victory at Spa-Francorchamps last spring.
Alongside countryman Will Stevens and France’s Norman Nato – two of his stablemates in the sister #12 entry – the Brit has been getting to grips with the V-Series.R, which 12 months ago finished fourth-on-the-road at Lusail International Circuit in the hands of Bourdais, Bamber and Alex Lynn, prior to being disqualified due to a technical infraction. The latter went on to put the Cadillac on pole position later in the season at Fuji – a performance he hopes the team can consolidate over the coming months.
“I’m excited to get the season started,” commented Lynn, who is heading into his third campaign with the legendary American marque. “It hasn’t been that long of an off-season, but I think we’ve made some good progress. JOTA is settling in really well and I’ve got two new team-mates in Norman and Will, who are really good guys. I think as a trio, we make a really strong line-up.
“It’s cool to still be driving the same car but with a different team and a fresh start. Qatar is a track that suited our car last year and everyone is starting from zero, which is always fun. I think we can have good expectations.”
The ten-hour Qatar 1812km will be preceded by the traditional ‘Prologue’ group test at the same circuit on 21-22 February.
