Button joins SMP Racing for 2018/19 WEC campaign
Ex-Formula 1 champion Jenson Button will race for the SMP Racing LMP1 team in the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship season, starting with this year's Le Mans 24 Hours.
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Button will make his WEC debut in the French endurance classic in one of SMP's two AER-powered, Dallara-built BR1s alongside Russian duo Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin.
It follows his first steps into sportscar racing with Honda in Super GT, which Button is contesting full-time this season after making his debut in last year's Suzuka 1000km.
"As you can imagine it's always been a dream of mine to race at Le Mans, I think it's every driver's dream to take part and hopefully go on to clinch that win at Le Mans, and I'm definitely no different," said the 2009 F1 champion.
"My teammates will be Aleshin and Petrov, who I know very well from his racing in F1, and Mikhail from his IndyCar exploits.
"We go to Le Mans to fight for the win. Every driver aims to win every race they go in for, but I think we really do have a good chance of being competitive at Le Mans."
Button is expected to contest every race on the 2018/19 WEC schedule with the exception of next week's Spa opener, which partially clashes with the Fuji Super GT round.
Petrov and Aleshin will race at Spa as a duo, while Stephane Sarrazin, Matevos Isaakyan and Egor Orudzhev form the line-up in the sister #17 BR1-AER.
Button's signing completes the LMP1 grid for Le Mans, which is as follows:
No. | Team | Car | Drivers |
1 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R13-Gibson |
Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna |
3 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R13-Gibson |
Thomas Laurent Mathias Beche Gustavo Menezes |
4 | ByKolles Racing Team | ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo |
Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer Tom Dillmann |
5 | Manor TRSM Racing | Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachrome |
Charlie Robertson Dean Stoneman Leo Roussel |
6 | Manor TRSM Racing | Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachrome |
Oliver Rowland Alex Brundle Oliver Turvey |
7 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS050 Hybrid |
Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
8 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS050 Hybrid |
Sebastien Buemi Fernando Alonso |
10 | DragonSpeed | BR1-Gibson |
Ben Hanley Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande |
11 | SMP Racing | BR1-AER |
Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Jenson Button |
17 | SMP Racing | BR1-AER |
Egor Orudzhev Matevos Isaakyan Stephane Sarrazin |
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