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Button won't drive McLaren F1 car before Monaco GP
Jenson Button will not drive McLaren's 2017 Formula 1 car before the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with the team feeling there will be no benefit to any track testing beforehand.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Apr 14, 2017, 11:38 AM
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With Fernando Alonso electing to skip Monaco to compete in the Indianapolis 500, McLaren has drafted in reserve driver Button to make a one-off return.
And although it would have been logical for Button to take part in next week's Bahrain test, or even run in a free practice session, to better understand F1's 2017 cars, the team thinks there is more to gain by concentrating on simulators.
When asked by Motorsport.com about why Button was not testing, racing director Eric Boullier said: "Jenson spent 17 years in racing in F1. He drove actually the kind of level of downforce that we had today and, going through the differences of the technicalities to drive this year, we agreed the track layout here [in Bahrain], even running practice one in Barcelona, it will not be very useful.
"He is fit, he is ready and having Oliver Turvey next week in the car is part of our fine-tuning the correlation with our simulator.
"The simulator in MTC is very accurate now and we both believe that it is better for him to spend a couple of days in the simulator driving this car model around the streets of Monaco."
Stoffel Vandoorne and Turvey will be taking part in next week's Bahrain test for McLaren instead.
Excited
Although McLaren waited a few days since Alonso's Indy announcement to confirm Button would be driving in Monaco, Boullier has said that the former world champion was the only serious option.
And he said that from his first conversation with Button about the comeback, the Briton was thrilled about the opportunity to get back to racing.
"His first reaction was, 'Great, I am so excited'. It was an easy discussion. Very straightforward. He was the choice, he had a contract with us anyway. You could feel his excitement over the phone was real and I am happy he will be part of this adventure."
Boullier also believes that despite no prior track running, Button will be bang on the pace from the first Monaco practice session.
"He is very talented. A world champion," he said. "He had a long experience in F1 and I can guarantee you by lap 10 of practice 1 he will be okay."
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