Friday May 19th, 2000
Jenson Button revealed yesterday he would accept being 'farmed out' to another Formula One in 2001.
The 20-year-old is intent on doing his best to keep his seat at Williams, but accepts that he may be elsewhere next year if Williams decide to bring reigning CART champion and former Williams test driver Juan Pablo Montoya back from America.
Button's future at Williams was thrown into doubt last week when team chief Frank Williams revealed he had asked Montoya's boss, Chip Ganassi, if he would release him at the end of 2000, a year short of fulfilling his contract with Ganassi.
"I would prefer to stay with Williams," said Button today as he prepared for Sunday's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany.
"I want to stay here for the next few years, but if it came to going to another team then so be it."
Button is on a long-term rolling contract with Williams which could loan him to a team such as Jaguar to give him a couple of extra years of Formula One experience, before possibly rejoining Williams.
"We will just have to wait and see what happens," added Button. "Nothing has been said to me so far. "Frank hasn't given me any indication yet. I think Frank has been looking at Montoya since the start of the year.
"I am not even thinking about Montoya coming back next year. I cannot think about that. It's not unsettling me.
"I am just concentrating on what I am doing. I'm taking it race by race and doing the best job I can and trying to get results."
Button has impressed the team in his five races so far, scoring three points, and unlucky not to score more due to engine failures in two races while running in the points.
"The team are not putting too much pressure on me," he added. "They are putting slight pressure on me because they want me to get good results."
Team boss Sir Frank Williams admitted last week he faced a `nasty and nice problem' deciding between Button and Montoya.
"It is what Jenson does on the track which will make up our mind," said Williams. "We have a long-term option on Montoya's future whenever he comes to F1."