INSIGHT: Why NASCAR appealed to Button after F1
Jenson Button will make his NASCAR Cup Sequence debut at a Circuit of The Americas venue he is aware of effectively from his Components 1 days, however the problem couldn’t be way more completely different.
The 2009 F1 world champion will race for Rick Ware Racing — with help from Stewart-Haas — in three occasions this yr, including Chicago’s new avenue race and the Indianapolis highway course to his schedule. All have been chosen as a result of his expertise on the F1 venues and the clear slate in Chicago, however in actuality he feels there’s little or no he can lean on when it comes to earlier information.
“I’ve raced at COTA fairly just a few occasions in an F1 automotive and everybody was saying a few days in the past once I examined there within the Storage 56 automotive, ‘Oh it’s straightforward for you, you’ve pushed right here in an F1 automotive’ nevertheless it’s slightly completely different in an F1 automotive!” Button says. “You mainly drive a distinct circuit.
“For me to become familiar with an enormous automotive, a inventory automotive, the take a look at final week did assist although it’s a really completely different kind of automotive.
Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Photos
“I benefit from the observe, it’s flowing — in an F1 automotive it’s simply superior. You undergo Flip 1 and thru the Esses, all the best way right down to Flip 9 it’s simply change of route after change of route. You place one foot improper at Flip 3 and that impacts you all the best way right down to Flip 9, and I feel all of us love that as drivers, it’s very just like the Suzuka Esses. There are some actually good overtaking alternatives in an F1 automotive — DRS helps.
“In a inventory automotive it’s very completely different. It’s clearly so much slower, and so they’re going side-by-side by way of Flip 3 and Flip 4, which is simply loopy, however I stay up for that each one that rubbing and tapping and what have you ever. It’s going to be an thrilling expertise.
“And the racing in inventory automobiles round COTA has been good as effectively. I’ve watched final yr’s race in all probability 20 occasions now simply to get an understanding of the place they’re placing the automotive, the completely different types of driving, who’s extra aggressive than others… So the race final yr was actually good enjoyable to observe, so I stay up for the motion.”
It’s not only a PR line that he’s trying ahead to it. It is a enterprise that Button himself put into motion by flagging his curiosity to Mobil 1, and has been eager to tackle the extra he’s realized about NASCAR for the reason that film “Days of Thunder” put the class on his radar as a nine-year-old.
However so few F1 drivers seem keen to tackle different challenges which might be so completely different to the world they know. Button himself was admirably dedicated all through his grand prix profession after which turned to punditry, suggesting that even residing in America didn’t seem to interrupt the ties to the European-based scene.
So after coming near an IndyCar trip across the time of the pandemic, and now tackling Le Mans in NASCAR’s Storage 56 entry alongside Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller, what has pushed Button to leap in a Cup automotive and comply with within the current footsteps of fellow F1 champions Kimi Raikkonen and Jacques Villeneuve?
“It felt to date faraway from us as children. I don’t wish to be unfavourable about Components 1 as a result of it’s an incredible sport and I’m an F1 world champion so I spent most of my life there, however you’re so targeted and your loved ones doesn’t come to the races as a result of your groups don’t really need them to be there, as a result of they know your focus is so essential,” he displays.
“It’s very robust as a result of it’s your life — it’s every thing. The whole lot you do is for Components 1. I did it for 17 years and also you’re on this world that you just neglect about every thing else. It’s all that issues, is making you a greater racing driver and a greater Components 1 driver. So if you step outdoors that, for me it’s thrilling to do different issues.
“With NASCAR it’s a way more relaxed environment. Don’t get me improper — the racing may be very severe and these are a few of the greatest drivers on the earth, however the environment outdoors the automotive, the environment on the observe is much more relaxed. It’s extra of a family-based class, so I feel that’s why we prefer it, as a result of it’s attempting one thing completely different. We’ve executed one thing the identical for therefore a few years, so to attempt one thing completely different is thrilling.
“Jacques raced final yr, Kimi did a race final yr, and everybody appears to take pleasure in it. And I feel it’s additionally as a result of we love one other problem. It’s attempting one thing completely different. We’re not simply F1 drivers, we’re racing drivers. I additionally stay within the States so it positively helps with that.”
It’s not only a one-off curiosity that Button has, both. Whereas he admits it’s his performances that may resolve if there’s additional alternatives for him to race within the Cup Sequence past the three introduced, the 43-year-old can also be eyeing up a possible oval transition for occasions just like the Daytona 500, however has an extended path in thoughts as one thing he can do with out sacrificing household time.
“For me it’s not simply driving the racing automotive. A racing automotive is a racing automotive, and it’s very completely different to what I’m used to however you become familiar with it over time,” he says. “It’s the racing that’s much more tough, having automobiles throughout you, having a spotter telling you who’s the place and a number of the time you’re caught within the center and might’t actually do a lot!
“It’s only a very completely different kind of racing, and that’s the bit I feel would take some time. I might go and drive on an oval, and I’m certain it will take me time however I’d become familiar with it — particularly at a circuit like Daytona the place it’s flat (out) the entire approach spherical. But it surely’s if you put different automobiles into the equation and the drafting and the pushing, it’s so much to study.
“Doing that within the Cup Sequence in all probability isn’t one of the simplest ways for me, leaping in a Cup automotive in Daytona. I feel it is likely to be higher to do it in a decrease class first and get a little bit of expertise that approach.
“The environment is nice, and that’s what I actually love about NASCAR. About all of the completely different sequence in NASCAR however particularly Cup Sequence, it’s the household environment that basically obtained me. I used to be chatting with Jimmie Johnson and he says, ‘My youngsters come alongside and so they’re taking part in with everybody else’s youngsters!’ It’s that a part of it that basically provides to the curiosity for me.”
Regardless of the motivation behind it, it’s certain so as to add to the broader motorsports curiosity in sure NASCAR occasions this yr, too. That’s a win-win for everybody.
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