Nowadays, official tests are held at the American Daytona International Speedway ahead of the 24-hour marathon, which takes place on this track from January 27 to 28.
The 24 Hours of Daytona traditionally kicks off the motorsport season, and we talked about the fact that Jenson Button, a former Formula 1 driver and 2009 world champion, will participate in this marathon for the first time. He signed a contract with the WTRAndretti team, founded on the basis of two teams – Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti, and together with his partners he will drive the Acura ARX-06 GTP sports prototype of the GTP/LMDh class with a hybrid power plant . .
“We rode the first laps in battle mode during testing with WTRAndretti and my teammates Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz and Colton Herta,” said Button. – Thank you for letting me join this team!
These tests make my head spin a little. Every time we return to the pits, we sit down to analyze all the information we’ve collected, see what’s happening with the car and figure out what we want to achieve. This work takes time.
All racers will say that these cars are very difficult. It is necessary to understand all the nuances of their behavior – from the moment you press the brakes to the acceleration at full throttle when exiting the corner, because so much happens between these two moments. You need to understand all this and achieve the desired balance of the car. In tests I achieved good results with this work and I liked everything.
It is always interesting to work with different drivers, because you get information from everyone and see what their driving style is. We’re all a little different, but it’s good that we comment on the car’s behavior in the same way. The driving experience is fairly comparable for everyone and we have the same insight into what we want to achieve with the car.”
These are the only tests officially allowed by the organizers of the American IMSA Championship, and now the teams will not meet to start training until January 19 in Daytona, and the race itself will take place on the last weekend of January.
Button also confirmed that he plans to sign a contract with one of the World Endurance Championship teams. Participating in the 24 Hours of Daytona is excellent preparation for a full season in the WEC, where he plans to compete in the Hypercar class but has not yet revealed who exactly he will be working with.
“I’m much closer to it,” Jenson told Sportscar365. “In the coming weeks it will become clear whether the answer will be ‘yes’ or ‘no’. First of all, I have to make sure for myself that this is what I need. I hope that everything will go as it should in Daytona and that the race will go well. In general, the intention is that I want to do eight races in the WEC, and the most important one would of course be Le Mans.
I really want to perform there again because I had a lot of fun driving the Garage 56 project car. And now I want to drive Le Mans behind the wheel of a really competitive car and compete with strong rivals. I don’t know how many hypercars will start at Le Mans, and I don’t know how many IMSA championship cars there will be. But it’s really cool to be a part of it.
It’s a special time in endurance racing because I can compete in both America and Europe, and I’m excited to be a part of that.”
As far as we can understand, Jenson Button plans to work in the WEC with the Jota team, which will field two Porsche 963 hypercars at the start of the 2024 championship.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
