WEC News: F1’s Jenson Button seeks 24 Hours of Le Mans glory
Jenson Button seeks to become just the sixth F1 world champion to win the most prestigious endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The 2009 champion is expected to be an outright contender because he is driving a Porsche 963 and the race officials have given Porsche an advantage with their latest Balance of Performance gimmicks.
“It’s such a special place to be and I love this race, it’s great,” Button told Sportscar365.
“I would love to stand on top of the podium here. That’s the aim this year. We can do it.”
Button will join Denmark’s Oliver Rasmussen and Great Britain’s Philip Hanson in a Team Jota-run Porsche 963.
The team’s Porsche 963 is fast and stablemates Callum Ilott and Will Stevens in the sister No.12 entry won the 6 Hours of Spa.
Related Article: WEC News: Hertz Team JOTA wins dramatic race at Spa
Still, they come in as underdogs. Team Jota are what’s called a privateer and the Penske Porsche teams is the ‘factory’ effort. They are odds on favorites to win
“I think you’ve seen for most of the year, privateers have been very quick in WEC,” said Button.
“For the team to win at Spa was massive. You look at the Proton, that was competitive in the race as well. AF Corse was also quick at the first race of the year.
“Privateers are able to make these cars competitive and the reason is because a team like Jota is a full-on racing team.
“This team has been around for a vey, very long time. Very competitive in everything it races. When the manufacturers come and go, this team will still be standing.”
The Briton is optimistic they’ve got their bad luck out of the way as the most important race of the year looms.
“We’ve had a tough year,” said Button.
“The pace has been pretty good. First race, we were on for a fifth when we had a failure.
“Second race we had a windscreen wiper fail when it was raining, which made it quite difficult.
“Then the last race we obviously had a crash. It’s not been the best, but we’re getting rid of all that bad luck so that it can all go smoothly this week.”
