Button was confirmed as Alonso’s replacement for Monaco, when his former teammate will race at the Indianapolis 500 instead, and the Brit was given the option to drive in next week’s post-Bahrain GP test.

However, the 2009 world champion told the team that he would prefer to concentrate on running Monaco in the simulator, as the two tracks are so different, so Oliver Turvey and Stoffel Vandoorne will do the test instead.

“It’s nice to have him back,” said Massa when asked about Button by Motorsport.com. “He’s a great driver, I was sure that they were going to put him in the car.

“You need to put a guy in with experience, especially for Monaco. So I knew it would be him.

“The only thing I don’t understand is why he is not testing here next week. If we had the same car as last year, it’s fine. But the car is completely different.

“You have a test for free, you can do 100 laps, understanding the tyres. He never drove tyres like that. If the simulator is great, why do most of the good drivers not want to go?

“Hamilton never went to the simulator in maybe two or three years.”

Asked how much testing he would want in a similar situation he said: “I would be here next week.

“If you have one full day to understand about the car, I would go, definitely.”