No place for Button in Penske squad
HONDA PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT HAS admitted that ex-formula 1 world champi0n Jenson Button was in serious consideration for Penske’s Acura 2018 IMSA Sportscar Championship campaign.
Penske announced last week that 2017 IMSA prototype champion Ricky Taylor would join Indycar convert Helio Castroneves in one its cars, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron in the other.
Button has said that he is looking for a return to motorsport next season after his one-off Super GT outing at Suzuka reignited his passion. And his Honda links led to talk that he could join its luxury brand Acura in its new Penske partnership. Button had shown interest in IMSA’S top-class DPI platform, with Honda HPD chief
Art St Cyr admitting he was a candidate.
“We were looking at a lot of different dynamics when we were putting this together,” said St Cyr. “Of course, someone with Jenson Button’s talent and also his pedigree with Honda is definitely someone that we had considered. But there were other circumstances that precluded him from being part of this programme.
“We are extremely happy, and we think we got the right six to really compete for a championship right now. One of the things that we talked about is we wanted to pair experienced drivers in other series, with people who are experienced in IMSA.”
Button could have joined the line-up for the enduros, but Penske opted for 2016 Indycar champion Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal as third drivers.