Confident Button Sees New Wave of Youth in F1

Jenson Button is confident of staying in Formula One and expects more young drivers to join him on the starting grid.

"I think every year, drivers start racing earlier in Karting," the 20-year-old Briton said at the French Grand Prix, where he qualified 10th for Williams on Saturday.

"So by the time they get to Formula Three they are a lot younger than they have been in the past.

"In every sport everyone is getting younger, aren't they?," added Button, who arrived in Formula One this season from British Formula Three, and in Brazil last March became the youngest driver ever to score a point.

"Tennis, football, golf. I don't know why but everyone seems to be getting a lot younger. It's very strange and the next one is Formula One I think.

"I think I'm the first of the young people.

"I think in the next two years there's going to be quite a few more. I don't know about the British but there will be a lot from Europe."

The evidence appears to back him up.

Brazilian teenager Antonio Pizzonia has tested with Benetton recently and in German Formula Three the average age has gone down dramatically.

There were two 18-year-old drivers in the German competition at the start of last season. This year there were nine from all over Europe.

Looking back on the first half of his impressive debut season, Button was confident he had done enough to remain on the grid in 2001.

Whether that will be with Williams remains to be seen, although Button -- who has scored three points in eight races so far -- hoped it would.

"I'm pretty confident of staying with them (Williams). But I'm staying in Formula One definitely," he said.

Button joined the British-based team just days after his 20th birthday in January as a late replacement for the under-performing Italian Alex Zanardi.

But with 1999 Champ car champion Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia waiting to make his return to Williams, where he was a test driver before moving to the United States, Button's position at the team has been in doubt.

Montoya's arrival depends on his Ganassi team, who have him under contract for another year, allowing him to leave, and Frank Williams told reporters this week that the indications were that they would not do that.

Nothing is quite what it seems in Formula One however and Button remains on everyone's transfer list.

"I think it's about nine teams so far," he said of the speculation. "It's unbelievable. If I had that much choice it would be quite interesting, wouldn't it?"