Button: Rivals beating Mercedes in F1 2017 “is a big ask”

Speaking at the Race Of Champions in Miami – where he is competing against fellow F1 stars past and present including Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa, Pascal Werhlein and David Coulthard – Button said that the extra drag created by the high-downforce 2017 F1 regulations could favour the Mercedes-powered teams.

“For anyone to catch Mercedes is a big ask, it really is,” said Button. “They’ve been so strong the last three years. Nobody knows with completely different regulations.

“With the way the regulations are now, there’s a lot more drag. So you need massive amounts of power, which Mercedes seems to have. I think if anyone challenges them, then they’ll have done a great job over this winter.”

Great hopes for F1

Button, who steps back from his race seat into a reserve and ambassadorial role with McLaren in 2017, hopes the new regulations spell an end to the predictable nature of F1 in recent times.

“We all want a positive season, it’s important for F1 to have many teams fighting at the front,” he said. “We definitely need that after the last three years.

“And with the new regulations, it’s very positive for the sport, something that it also needed. We’ve got to hope that this is the start of great things for Formula 1 in the future.”

Speaking about McLaren’s chances this season, Button added: “Hopefully McLaren has made a good step forward, but I haven’t had a lot of involvement with the team so I don’t know where they stand.”