Jenson Button declined a steering wheel for the Indy 500

The 2009 world champion Formula 1 will participate with a fourth different manufacturer, after having driven the SMP Racing BR1 in 2018, the NASCAR in 2023 and the Porsche 963 last year. He will therefore set off for the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of the Cadillac V-Series.R n°38, alongside Sébastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber. Winner of the Monaco Grand Prix in 2009, Jenson Button could therefore win a second round of the Triple Crown if he wins in Le Mans, whether we count Monaco or the world championship title in this unofficial trophy won by Graham Hill.

However, there's no question of attempting to participate in the third event, the Indianapolis 500! Button revealed, ahead of race week at Le Mans, that he had been offered the opportunity to participate in the 109th edition, won last May by Spaniard Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing). He declined, however, as he no longer wanted to take such risks at this stage of his career.

“Actually, I got an offer to race in the Indianapolis 500 this year! It was a really good team, and they usually enter one more car in the race every year. Now I’m 45, I have a family… If I was 20, and I didn’t have the career I had in Formula 1, of course I would have jumped at the chance to race in the Indy 500, I would have signed up with both hands. I have no experience on ovals or in a IndyCar, and I'm not brave enough. I have no problem saying that!

An inspiration that could have been called Sato

Although the British driver has not revealed the name of a team, the additional cars are generally brought by Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Each of these three teams fielded a car additional laps for Marco Andretti, Kyle Larson and Takuma Sato respectively. The latter qualified his car on the front row, before leading for much of the early part of the race. His former Formula 1 teammate Button was delighted for the 48-year-old Japanese driver, a two-time winner at Indianapolis.

"I know how Takuma is, we were teammates for three years, he's very fast, always on the limit, and that hasn't changed at all for him! He has a lot of experience and two wins now there is really good for him, I was happy to see him at the front this year too."

For those who have driven in F1 at Williams, Benetton, Renault, BAR, Honda, Brawn GP and McLaren, theEndurance in general and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in particular are now his vectors of passion: "From now on, it's endurance racing that I dream of. And clearly, it's here at Le Mans that we find THE race. The others are good races, but this is the one everyone wants to win. It's on this race that, when I look back on my career, I will judge whether or not I'm happy with what I was able to produce there."

Comments collected by Michaël Duforest, in Le Mans.

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