Button nearly hurt amid Monaco paddock chaos

Jenson Button was a near-victim of the chaos in the Monaco paddock as teams struggle to be ready for action just a few days after travelling from Barcelona.

As members of the general public roamed the paddock because the security turnstiles were not up and running, and workers in hard hats raced to get motor homes up and running, the 2009 world champion revealed he was almost run over by a forklift.

“I was looking but he wasn’t as he was reversing,” said the McLaren driver on Wednesday afternoon.

“It makes it a bit dangerous.  Maybe we should be wearing hard hats,” he added.

It is believed the preparations were affected by the truck fire at Ste-Devote, but Button thinks F1’s blue-riband event should not be in such a rush.

“It is very busy out there and we are running through a lot of fans and walking through areas not built yet.  I would prefer it not to be back-to-back,” he said.

“Because it is such a special event we should have a good space beforehand.”

Some teams, however, were not complaining as loudly, such as Williams whose motor home was further advanced than most after the team had packed up and left Barcelona within mere hours of the chequered flag.

And Red Bull is also in good shape, having taken a smaller motor home to Spain while its ‘Energy Station’ was floated into the Principality’s harbour.

“It is very tight but we planned ahead,” he said.

Also amid the chaos, the FIA announced that Alain Prost would be the driver steward this weekend.  In fact, the official on duty will be former Toyota driver Allan McNish.

© RIF | GMM