OPINION: While the battle for the first title of IMSA’s hybrid era is finely poised heading into the 2023 Petit Le Mans finale, plenty of eyes will be on JDC-Miller Motorsport’s customer Porsche 963 and a certain Formula 1 world champion making his series debut.
Jenson Button has sampled an eclectic mix of racing series in the past few years since his last full-time racing programme in Super GT concluded in 2019. Now 43, the 2009 Formula 1 world champion had a disappointing British GT cameo at Silverstone in 2020 as hidden glitches dogged his McLaren 720S GT3.
championship leader Pipo Derani points out, even for drivers who have been in the car all year “the amount of tools that you have is sometimes overwhelming”. Quickly getting to grips with managing these during his stints at the wheel will be important for Button to optimise his performance.
and the aggression that sometimes you have to have to get by these guys is quite high. Also, you learn through a season because you drive with the cars more often, you know who is in X, Y and Z car, you know how to approach a pro or a pro-am.” Tyres are another major element that Button will have to come to terms with.
races that GTP cars have been eligible for. And as well as enjoying strong form of late, the 963 has been configured to be accessible for a team “that hasn’t been running the car to go out and potentially race the next day”, Tandy explains. As a testament to that, JDC-Miller has already taken two fourth places in its partial campaign with the only GTP model that has been made available for customers to buy in year one, with Proton and WEC outfit Jota also taking the plunge.
outing? Toyota WEC aces Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Brendon Hartley have made regular outings at Petit in recent years, and there’s no reason why Button couldn’t combine a WEC gig with outings in
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