Button’s replacement Vandoorne dominated GP2 previous year and made his F1 debut in place of the injured Alonso in Bahrain this season.
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The Woking-based team have made a decision to partner Fernando Alonso with Stoffel Vandoorne, but the British driver has chose to accept the unique offer from his current employers rather than drive for another team.
Following on from Felipe Massa’s retirement, announced on Thursday afternoon, Button’s sabbatical comes as a surprise to many, who expected the 36-year-old to claim the vacant seat at his old team, Williams.
However, Button has not officially retired and McLaren have an option on Button for him to compete for the race team in 2018. I will also be doing a lot of stuff I haven’t done for 17 years. In fact, I’m massively excited about my new role, which has come about as a result of a number of in-depth chats with Ron (Dennis, McLaren CEO and executive chairman).
“What is clear is that if Jenson is going to drive a Formula One vehicle in 2018, I believe it can only be at McLaren”.
“I definitely need a break”, Button told a news conference.
“Having extended his contract to include 2017 and 2018, he’ll continue to be a senior, influential and committed member of the team, and will remain centrally involved in the development of our cars”.
Fernando Alonso: “We didn’t do a flawless race today – we made some mistakes here and there, including having a problem in the first pit stop, when the green light didn’t work”.
Fernando Alonso has hailed Jenson Button as his “best ever team mate”, after Button announced he was stepping away from a race drive role at McLaren for next season.
But they do have the option to reinstate Button as an active driver in 2018.
It was at Brawn that he secured his world champion title in 2009, before moving to McLaren the next year.
“Monza is likely to be another tough test, but we’re confident of the momentum we’ve gathered, and it’ll be interesting to see where we stand at a venue that favours out-and-out power above anything else”. By the end of a run of four races in July, Button was exhausted.
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“Stoffel will bring fresh ideas and we will push team to maximum but still have Jenson helping us”. I’ll get up when I want, I’ll do what I want, for a lot of the days of the year. Indeed Button, who qualified a lowly 15th for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, has not won a race, nor stepped on the podium, in almost four years.
