Claire Williams says her team will not be waiting around for Jenson Button to make up his mind over his plans for 2017, though she admits ‘it would be a great story’ to see the 2009 world champion return to Grove.
Button’s contract with McLaren-Honda expires at the end of the current campaign and reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne has been tipped to replace the Briton at Woking next season.
Meanwhile, Williams is exploring the possibility of changing its pairing after three years of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas as team-mates. Despite previously describing Button as “an attractive proposition”, the deputy team principal insists her outfit will dictate its own agenda.
"We will own our driver line-up decision, and I am not sat here waiting for [McLaren chairman] Ron Dennis to make his decision or for Jenson to make his decision,” Williams told Press Association Sport.
“It it is not about what other people are doing. I am not going to be waiting around because that is just not the right mentality for a team like ours to have.
“It would be a great story, but he has to make the right choice for him, and we have to make the right choice for the team.”
Button made his F1 debut with the Grove-based team back in 2000 and is now the most experienced racer on the grid. Williams adds that the 36-year-old fits the bill in terms of what the team is looking for, both on and off track.
“He started his career here, but more importantly Jenson is a great driver, and he has still got a lot of fight left in him,” she added.
“He is a great talent in the car, but also outside of the car and we need a driver like him.
“When I talk about the criteria that we are looking at, it is the talent in the cockpit, the intelligence to feed back to the engineers, and for us, as an independent team, the commercial factors are going to play a part in the decision-making process too. You can't have an unknown driver in your car. It is just not going to work.”
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