When Fortec Motorsport bowed out of Worldwide System 3000 on the finish of 2000, it did so with a single podium courtesy of Jamie Davies ending second in Monaco. One other provisionally taken by Andreas Scheld on the Nurburgring was chalked off for essentially the most minor of technical infractions, a stray piece of tape on the entrance wing endplate following a change of nostril robbing the German of a real shock end in blended situations.
However it’s conceivable that the staff’s tally may nicely have been far increased had a promising take a look at with a future world champion resulted in a race deal. The small matter of a path to System 1 unexpectedly opening up for Jenson Button in the end took care of that.
Button’s meteoric rise from British System 3 to F1 with Williams for 2000, after beating Bruno Junqueira within the race to switch Alex Zanardi, is well-known. However much less remembered is his look at a three-day end-of-year F3000 take a look at at Jerez 25 years in the past, as he evaluated the subsequent stage of a profession that might a matter of days later absorb a maiden F1 take a look at as his prize for profitable the earlier 12 months’s McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.
Button made his F3000 bow with Tremendous Nova earlier than shifting on to Fortec, a staff new to the class for 1999 that had peaked with two fifth locations for ex-F1 racer Norberto Fontana. After setting the sixth-fastest time, he made an impression on staff boss Richard Dutton.
“In the event you’d requested me per week in the past whether or not he was prepared for F3000, I would have stated not,” he informed Autosport on the time. “After what I’ve seen, nonetheless, I would say he is prepared now.”
It turned out that Button was prepared for way over F3000 – some extent that was shortly obvious to Fortec staff supervisor and Button’s engineer on the take a look at, David Hayle.
“He was undoubtedly a kind of drivers that was mature past his years by way of capacity,” recollects Hayle. “Nothing fazed him. You could not put him off his stride, he was completely within the zone when he was within the automobile. It was a extremely, eye-opening expertise to get any individual so younger, so mature and so good all collectively.”
Button impressed Fortec along with his maturity when he stepped up from F3 in November 1999
Photograph by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Pictures
Button had graduated from System Ford to the F3 ranks for 1999 with the Renault-powered Promatecme staff, ending up better of the remaining behind title protagonists Marc Hynes (Manor Motorsport) and Luciano Burti (Paul Stewart Racing). His performances had attracted consideration from the Prost F1 staff, who would give him a trial at Barcelona in December and ignite hypothesis that he might race for its F3000 arm – a race winner with Stephane Sarrazin in 1999 – if he didn’t return to F3 with Promatecme.
Fortec had run Kristian Kolby and Matt Davies to fourth and fifth within the 1999 British F3 standings, and so obtained an in depth have a look at the upstart Button. Hayle says the “huge PR marketing campaign” behind Button had intensified its need to beat him and admits to turning into saturated by the hype, however it bred in him a curiosity that this may simply be a really particular driver who Fortec couldn’t afford to not check out on the subsequent degree.
Hayle recollects making a pitch to a reluctant Dutton earlier than continuing anyway to organise a gathering at Towcester’s Little Chef with Button’s supervisor David Robertson. “We agreed a really beneficial deal for him to do it,” he says, clarifying that this was initially just for at some point of the take a look at because of the proximity of Button’s run within the 1998 world championship-winning McLaren MP4-14.
“We obtained within the automobile and I used to be like, ‘that is superb’. The place was nice, low, it was like ‘what’s occurring?’”
Jenson Button
Chatting with Autosport in 2020, Button revealed he didn’t hit it off with Tremendous Nova’s Lola B99/50. “I hated the take a look at, was actually gradual on the primary day,” he stated.
However when he headed to Fortec, it was a revelation for each events. Button recalled: “The following day and we obtained within the automobile and I used to be like, ‘that is superb’. The place was nice, low, it was like ‘what’s occurring?’”
Hayle was assigned to be his engineer and, as he obtained to know the motive force that might grow to be a 15-time Grand Prix winner, found that he was “actually pleasantly stunned by what I noticed as the true Jenson Button, versus the Jenson Button that we might been competing in opposition to all season”.
“Beneath there was a extremely simply real, easy-going boy that was bloody good in a race automobile,” he says. “We did the take a look at and it was one of many best days at a race observe that I’ve that I’ve had. He was nice; he was calm, purchased into every thing that you just requested him to do.”
First day in Lola B99/50 was a battle with Tremendous Nova earlier than productive take a look at with Fortec
Photograph by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Pictures
Dialog quickly turned to the prospect of constant for the ultimate morning of the take a look at on 10 November. “We rapidly moved stuff round and obtained him in,” says Hayle, earlier than the staff and Button’s entourage – which included his late father, John – went to dinner at a pizza joint close to the observe.
“I sat subsequent to Jenson and stated, ‘I owe you an apology’,” relates Hayle. “‘All 12 months lengthy, I’ve actually been supplying you with a tough time. Not simply me; everybody’s supplying you with a tough time due to the entire PR factor that is behind you and I joined the bandwagon. I believed you have been made up and it wasn’t actual, however I obtained it improper; you are bloody good in a automobile, I am actually having fun with the take a look at. I am sorry’. And he stated, ‘Oh, yeah, however I am used to it, I obtained it from everybody’.”
To Hayle, Button’s performances on the second day have been telling of his strategy. In Jerez, he explains, sometimes groups would use one set of tyres within the morning then save a set for the afternoon. Since Button was solely staying for the morning, Hayle devised a plan to make use of each units. He says minimal adjustments have been made after the primary run, which was benchmarked in opposition to Mario Haberfeld within the sister Fortec automobile.
“It was nothing vital, it was extra a case of ‘simply present me the place I want to enhance,’” explains Hayle. As soon as that was taken on board, Button went out once more, taking the remainder of the pitlane without warning.
Hayle recollects “the entire paddock scrambling to get drivers and folks again on the vehicles, placing on one other set of tyres” to comply with go well with, bucking conference. “He ended up P6 out of 44 vehicles, or one thing like that,” provides Hayle. “It was simply unbelievable.”
How consultant testing occasions are may be up for debate. In any case, the take a look at was topped by Haberfeld, who went on to signal for Fortec however did not rating some extent in a season blighted by an enormous qualifying accident in Barcelona. Davies was introduced in for 2 races whereas the Brazilian recovered, his Monaco exhibiting placing to relaxation reminiscences of a attempting 1999 with Edenbridge as he centered subsequently on sportscars.
However different rookies in 2000 present a touch of what Button might need achieved within the class. Sportscar convert Mark Webber (European Arrows) was a winner on the second time of asking at a moist Silverstone, after a robust move on fellow newcomer Darren Manning (Arden). Fernando Alonso was unable to take the beginning at Silverstone as a result of a technical irregularity along with his Astromega automobile’s engine studs, however tracked winner Junqueira all the best way to the flag in Hungary earlier than placing collectively a dominant efficiency in Spa on his strategy to F1 with Minardi.
Fortec’s solely podium of 2000 got here with stand-in driver Davies in Monaco
Photograph by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Pictures
And whereas Button himself admitted that the Apomatox/Prost Junior staff would have been the extra probably choice for 2000, if Williams had chosen Junqueira as an alternative, he believes he might have mastered the Lola B99/50.
“You get used to one thing over time,” he stated. “Tremendous GT after I jumped in it, didn’t take pleasure in it in any respect and I used to be nowhere. After a number of days testing, we have been on the tempo and we received the championship that 12 months [in 2018], so it simply takes time. We be taught to adapt, some vehicles take longer than others.”
However when the Williams alternative got here, F3000 would naturally fall by the wayside and his affiliation with Fortec proved fleeting. But Hayle has little question that “skipping F3000 was completely the suitable factor to do for him”, as Button put collectively an honest first season in F1, reaching the factors within the second race and on 5 additional events to peak with fourth at Hockenheim.
“In the event you get the prospect to go to F1, with out doing [F3000], why would not you?” he says.
Button joined Williams for 2000 and the remaining was historical past
Photograph by: Motorsport Pictures
