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 probably 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 circumstances.
However it’s conceivable that the group’s tally would possibly nicely have been far larger had a promising check 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 interchange Alex Zanardi, is well-known. However much less remembered is his look at a three-day end-of-year F3000 check at Jerez 25 years in the past, as he evaluated the subsequent stage of a profession that may a matter of days later soak up a maiden F1 check as his prize for profitable the earlier yr’s McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.
Button made his F3000 bow with Tremendous Nova earlier than transferring on to Fortec, a group 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 group boss Richard Dutton.
“If you happen to’d requested me every week in the past whether or not he was prepared for F3000, I might have mentioned not,” he informed Autosport on the time. “After what I’ve seen, nonetheless, I might say he is prepared now.”
It turned out that Button was prepared for way over F3000 – some extent that was rapidly obvious to Fortec group supervisor and Button’s engineer on the check, David Hayle.
“He was undoubtedly a kind of drivers that was mature past his years by way of means,” recollects Hayle. “Nothing fazed him. You could not put him off his stride, he was completely within the zone when he was within the automotive. It was a extremely, eye-opening expertise to get any individual so younger, so mature and so good all collectively.”
Button impressed Fortec together with his maturity when he stepped up from F3 in November 1999
Picture by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Pictures
Button had graduated from System Ford to the F3 ranks for 1999 with the Renault-powered Promatecme group, ending up better of the remainder behind title protagonists Marc Hynes (Manor Motorsport) and Luciano Burti (Paul Stewart Racing). His performances had attracted consideration from the Prost F1 group, who would give him a trial at Barcelona in December and ignite hypothesis that he may 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 received 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 changing into saturated by the hype, but it surely bred in him a curiosity that this would possibly simply be a really particular driver who Fortec couldn’t afford to not check out on the subsequent stage.
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 in the future of the check as a result of proximity of Button’s run within the 1998 world championship-winning McLaren MP4-14.
“We received within the automotive and I used to be like, ‘that is superb’. The place was nice, low, it was like ‘what’s occurring?’”
Jenson Button
Talking to Autosport in 2020, Button revealed he didn’t hit it off with Tremendous Nova’s Lola B99/50. “I hated the check, was actually sluggish on the primary day,” he mentioned.
However when he headed to Fortec, it was a revelation for each events. Button recalled: “The subsequent day and we received within the automotive 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 received to know the driving force that may turn into 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 would been competing towards all season”.
“Beneath there was a extremely simply real, easy-going boy that was bloody good in a race automotive,” he says. “We did the check 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 all the pieces that you simply requested him to do.”
First day in Lola B99/50 was a battle with Tremendous Nova earlier than productive check with Fortec
Picture by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Pictures
Dialog quickly turned to the prospect of continuous for the ultimate morning of the check on 10 November. “We swiftly moved stuff round and received him in,” says Hayle, earlier than the group 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 mentioned, ‘I owe you an apology’,” relates Hayle. “‘All yr 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 had been made up and it wasn’t actual, however I received it incorrect; you are bloody good in a automotive, I am actually having fun with the check. I am sorry’. And he mentioned, ‘Oh, yeah, however I am used to it, I received it from everybody’.”
To Hayle, Button’s performances on the second day had been telling of his method. 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 modifications had been made after the primary run, which was benchmarked towards Mario Haberfeld within the sister Fortec automotive.
“It was nothing important, 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 swimsuit, bucking conference. “He ended up P6 out of 44 vehicles, or one thing like that,” provides Hayle. “It was simply unimaginable.”
How consultant testing occasions are might be up for debate. In spite of everything, the check 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 recollections of a making an attempt 1999 with Edenbridge as he targeted 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 because of a technical irregularity together with his Astromega automotive’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
Picture by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Pictures
And whereas Button himself admitted that the Apomatox/Prost Junior group would have been the extra possible choice for 2000, if Williams had chosen Junqueira as an alternative, he believes he may have mastered the Lola B99/50.
“You get used to one thing over time,” he mentioned. “Tremendous GT after I jumped in it, didn’t get pleasure from it in any respect and I used to be nowhere. After just a few days testing, we had been on the tempo and we received the championship that yr [in 2018], so it simply takes time. We study 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 correct factor to do for him”, as Button put collectively a good first season in F1, reaching the factors within the second race and on 5 additional events to peak with fourth at Hockenheim.
“If you happen to get the prospect to go to F1, with out doing [F3000], why would not you?” he says.
Button joined Williams for 2000 and the remainder was historical past
Picture by: Motorsport Pictures