Jenson Button has proved to be a "great asset" to Williams in his role as a senior advisor, according to Nicholas Latifi. 2009 World Champion Button joined the team in his new position at the start of 2021, with the aim being for him to offer advice and guidance to the squad, as well as helping to support and develop both the race and academy drivers. Whilst Button - who began his F1 career with Williams back in 2000 - was unable to be as present at the beginning of the season due to coronavirus restrictions, Latifi thinks that his influence has been a positive one. "I think, since Jenson joined, he's been a great asset to the team," Latifi told media including RacingNews365.com . "I guess obviously, in the earlier part of [the year] when he joined, COVID was still a bit of an issue, so I think he wasn't really in the factory so much, and I think still even on track [he was] still obviously conscious of mixing the bubbles, as he is a lot of the time with F1 and Sky. "But yeah, he obviously has a wealth of experience in the sport, and obviously the unique perspective of a driver, which is great for me, personally. Even his old race engineer is actually with our team as well, so they have a relationship as well. "And yeah, just from working with the team on that side, I see him regularly talking with some of the engineers and kind of giving his opinion on what he's been seeing, which I'm sure is valuable to them."
Button's words of advice to Latifi
Latifi has also found it helpful to take on board Button's advice as a driver, given that the Canadian is still in the early stages of his Formula 1 career. "From the more personal side, I'm very new to my Formula 1 career, so he's given little words of advice and [advice on] starting out, kind of good approaches, bad approaches and whatnot," the 26-year-old said. "And, yeah, just the odd little bits of encouragement here or there, directly after a qualifying or after a race if I manage to bump into him. "So I think it's a great asset to have him in the team, someone to just be able to bounce something off of if I have the need to or the urge to seek advice from someone. So yeah, it's been good."
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