McLaren refute reports of injury for Button

2014 F1 season

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McLaren has denied reports Jenson Button’s participation in the Spanish Grand Prix is in doubt.

Several publications claimed on Tuesday Button had withdrawn from a triathlon competition in Spain due to problems with his leg.

A McLaren spokesperson told F1 Fanatic: “Jenson decided not to complete the Canary Islands triathlon, but he is fit and well and has, contrary to a few rogue media reports, no injuries of any kind.”

“Indeed, he is driving in our simulator today and is looking forward to participating in the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix,” they added.

Button regularly participates in triathlons as part of his fitness regime.

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Image © McLaren/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “McLaren refute reports of injury for Button”

  1. Jenson was competing in the Challenge Fuerteventura Triathlon, he was here for a week and was a great ambassador for Britain and F1. What an genuinely nice person he is. He started the race well, 44 out of alomost 300, in the swim, improved to 26th during the cycling but had to retire from the running due to trouble with his leg.In his own words: “And then the run came!! 21.1kms, was ok but at 11km my ITB started playing up so pulled out” from http://instagram.com/p/nXbb1TFat-/ the Jenson Ichiban site.

  2. Hello,

    I’m not sure it’s the right place to post this, but let me try… since I remember J. Button said it trained hard to loose muscles this Winter so as to decrease his weight (saying, as far as I remember, that “it is much harder to loose muscles than to gain them”).

    I think that the fan-base of F1 (and I mean here passionated people as can be found on this great website) should really make a stand against the current situation regarding weight limits. I don’t claim the solution is easy from an engineering point of view, but I do state that it is unacceptable and shameful to see F1 drivers going to qualifications sessions dehydrated and without eating to gain milliseconds. Then some of them just collapse after the qualifications, or you see them craving for foods and rushing to McD!!! Is that what we want to see? I’d like to see fit drivers, in good health. Even from a purely cynical point of view, is exhibiting dehydrated drivers in McD good for the image of F1? (Since it’s seems it’s the only thing that matters these days, anyway).

    Another thing, while I’m at it. I remember the overwhelming outcome of the poll regarding the doubling points issue. I think there could be a clear way to make a stand, more than just clicking ‘yes’ or ‘no’: if we think it’s bad, then we just boycott the TV retransmission of the last GP of the season. Hopefully, we’re enough to make this clear in audience scores. This would really show a strong determination from fans and an implication into what we want to see and what we are ready to accept. What do you think of it? We have here a vast community so we could organise things. Somehow it’s too easy to protest without engaging for our opinions.

    Thanks for reading, sorry for the long (and sort of unrelated) post. Definitely, the first point is more important in my opinion (we should help the drivers here, strongly; the situation is, let me say it again, ridiculous). Still, the second point is somehow related; the general guideline being: let’s try to stand for F1 as we like it, with the motorsport / racing passion on the first line (even if there are, of course, multiple ways of living this passion, and it’s good passionated people have different opinions and don’t agree on everything!).

    JS

    1. And see you in Catalunya soon, for those who’ll be at the first race in Europe!

      [Note: I remember reading FIA official saying the doubling point thing was to increase TV scores, so that’s why it would make sense to make this a failure too.]

    2. I believe the weight limit will be going up after this season, so hopefully some of the drivers will be able to eat again.

      Also, sorry, it’s “lose” not “loose”

      1. Thanks for correcting the typo. There may be some others in there you know…

    3. Sounds kind of austere to me … hmm, I guess it kind of makes sense that you have starving drivers and econo F1 carts. I just wonder how long it will take for the cool factor to wear off and people start realizing what F1’s political “climate” is really about. If you don’t want weight to be such a factor, start making the cars faster and not slower :)

      Also, would love to see an RPM gauge on the TV, but I don’t think that would help ratings…

    4. @js: I think it is very relevant – both from an ethical point, but also from a safety point.
      Doping in sports are prohibited, based on the assumption that it damages the athletes health, both short and long term. Starving and weight loss beyond a reasonable level is also damaging for the health of the drivers. Dehydration is very dangerous for the ability to concentrate and focus. In boxing they use plastic wraps all around the body sitting in a Sauna before Weight test. Before the match the boxer then has some hours to drink and refill some of the lost liquid, but there is a limit to how much You can absorb per hour. But the drivers are going into the competition suffering on a weight minimum – very bad.
      The rules causing this need adjustment ASAP. Make a poll and show our disgust in every way!

      1. The weight of the driver should not be taken into consideration with regards to the car. His health is far more important. These guys (and girls) in motor racing work very hard to stay in shape, and they risk their lives to entertain us. The FIA and teams have no right to ask them to risk their health just for a few seconds. These cars should gain or lose time based only on the engine and aero packages, not on the weight of the driver.

        1. @palle @irejag: thanks for the support. I like to idea of a poll to start with! That would be great to show our disgust in every way, as you rightly wrote it.
          @keithcollantine: do you think you could start a poll here and use F1Fanatic to make some officials aware of the result if needed?

  3. I could not possibly miss a Grand Prix. I have not missed one since 1967. I could boycott it if I record it on Sky maybe. Would that be okay?

    1. Hi!

      Yes, I think it would do, thanks! It would be great if we can motivate enough people to do so, as a form of protest corroborating the outcome of the poll. Otherwise it’ll be useless.

      Cheers,
      JS

  4. Iliotibial band irritation is a very common running injury. It might be a bit uncomfortable, particularly plantar flexing on the brake or accelerator, depending on the side affected obviously. But I’d be very surprised if it prevented him from driving in Spain, particularly as he’s got another week of rest.

    1. Couple of Ibuprofen before the race and he will be fine.

  5. I wonder who they would race if Jenson did pull out.. Vandoorne is the reserve, so they could pull him from GP2 and let him race.. Alternatively, why not give Gary Paffett one race for all his years as test driver? Assuming of course that Vandoorne will race with the team in the near future..

    1. Pedro de la Rosa. #SuperSub

      @fastiesty

    2. @fastiesty Please! I love seeing the random third driver get at least one race, it shows they aren’t so useless after all! And while it would be awesome to see Vandoorne and Magnussen teamed up, I think Paffett would be a more sensible choice and certainly he would deserve it. I wouldn’t expect anything more than what Badoer did (in Belgium, not in Europe at least) but I would be exstatic just seeing him in the car!

  6. Would it matter even if he was injured? It’s not as if the McLaren is fast enough to put his leg under stress….

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