Toro Rosso make approach for Button

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/dec/05/jensen-button-scuderia-toro-rosso

Toro Rosso make approach for Button
• Italians interested in snapping up British driver
• Lifeline for 28-year-old's career after Honda withdrawal
Alan Henry guardian.co.uk,
Friday December 5 2008 16.35 GMT Article history



Jenson Button was thrown a potential career lifeline today when it emerged that an approach had been made to him by Scuderia Toro Rosso, one of the few teams to have a vacant slot left for next season.

Franz Tost, the Toro Rosso team *principal, is known to have a high *opinion of the 28-year old British driver having worked with him when he drove for the Williams-BMW squad during his *formula one debut season in 2000. Sources close to the Faenza-based team suggested todaythat Button could be invited by Tost to test one of their STR02s, in which Sebastian Vettel won the rain-soaked Italian grand prix at Monza in September, at the three-day test session scheduled for Spain's Jerez circuit from December 10-12.

Button, who took time out to thank the Honda workforce at Brackley today after the Japanese team said it was pulling out of the sport, would not be drawn into speculation about his future plans, though he did say Honda's withdrawal "came as much of a shock to me as everyone else".

Should Button end up getting the Toro Rosso drive it will be the final chance for the popular British driver to make a worthwhile impact on the formula one record book, something he was confidently expected to do from the moment he first drove for Williams as a wide-eyed newcomer, barely out of his teens, in the 2000 Australian grand prix at Melbourne. Button's original hopes of staying with Williams beyond 2000 were frustrated by the team's residual commitment to the highly-rated Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who had been signed to start racing for the team from the start of 2001.

Button then spent two fruitless years with the Benetton-Renault squad before switching to the BAR-Honda team in 2003. For the 2006 season Honda bought total control of the BAR team and that year saw Button scoring his maiden grand prix victory in Hungary with a flawless drive on a treacherously slippery track surface. *

However Honda failed to build on that impressive achievement and seldom looked as obviously competitive again. It had been hoped that the new technical regulations being introduced for 2009, including the reintroduction of slick tyres and dramatic aerodynamic revisions, would enable the team to exploit a competitive advantage, but at the end of the day it was commercial pressures far from the race track that very nearly left Button parked in the pit lane for good


Go Button! With a Ferrari engine!

 

Forza that!

Would be actually a step up for Jenson. The Honda was a POS and the TR became a midfield car.

Here's hoping to STR 2009 with Button and Sebastian, as in Buemi that is.

 

I guess that Bourdais is now done.

 

Alright Button! You've got your final chance, now show us what you've got!

 

Looks that way. Really too bad imo since I think he would have continued to improve if given the chance.

 

agreed the honda was such a joke this is button's chance to impress. hopefully he won't blow it

 

this is indeed Jenson's chance. it would be pretty silly if he turned down this chance, IMO.

 

Finally a chance for British racng fans to get excited about Jenson Button again, don't mess this up Jenson.