Button is 'an attractive proposition' - Williams

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Claire Williams says Jenson Button is "an attractive proposition" for Williams if he is available next season but insists the team is weighing up a number of driver options.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa are both currently out of contract at the end of the season, and after three years as team-mates Williams is exploring the possibility of a change. With Button's future at McLaren uncertain - Stoffel Vandoorne is tipped to replace the 2009 world champion when his contract expires at the end of the year - the Williams deputy team principal admits he could be a good fit for the team.

"'Button back at Williams' is a great headline," Williams told Sky Sports. "He started his career here, he's a world champion and extremely intelligent when it comes to building a team around him and helping the engineering side develop the car.

"Of course he is going to be an attractive proposition if he is available. But we are talking to a lot of drivers in the paddock at the moment - and he may or may not be on the list."

Williams stresses the team is currently trying to understand which drivers will be available in 2017 before analysing whether it wants to make any changes to its current line-up.

"We are talking to [Bottas and Massa] and we are having other conversations with other drivers in the paddock to see what other opportunities there are.

"But that's not to say we aren't happy with the job Valtteri and Felipe are doing. We have a great line-up, but no decision has been made. We just have to work through the conversations."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.