Button to stay with McLaren
JENSON BUTTON will today be handed a remarkable reprieve when he is named as a McLaren race driver for 2015.
the 34-year- old Briton had given up all hope of taking his Formula One career into a 16th season as McLaren bosses wanted to plump for their Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen to partner the incoming Fernando Alonso.
But that decision was never rubber- stamped, and weeks of uncertainty began. Now Sportsmail has learned f rom an impeccably-placed source within McLaren that Button has been offered a new contract and will be unveiled, along with Alonso, at McLaren’s base in Woking this morning.
Button’s good news means that McLaren’s new partnership with Honda will start in dazzling style: with two drivers who have three world titles between them.
Whether Magnussen will be kept on, in one form or another, remains to be seen.
It seems likely that the move to keep Button came about after McLaren chairman Ron Dennis took into account the wishes of his shareholders and Honda, who established a good relationship with Button when he drove for them from 2003 to 2008.
For a long time Dennis had shown no inclination to re-sign Button. Indeed, both he and racing director Eric Boullier privately indicated that they favoured the blend of experience and youth offered by Magnussen, 22, and Alonso, 33. that Button outscored Magnussen 126 points to 55 last season seemed not to be enough.
Button grew so frustrated with his treatment that before the penultimate race in Brazil he wondered aloud if he would even accept a new contract if one was forthcoming. ‘ that’s a good question,’ he said. He also drew up plans to take part in the World Endurance Championship.
But the pendulum gradually swung his way as a series of deadlines were missed.
First, McLaren said their driver line-up would be announced before the season- closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. they then deferred it until no earlier than December 1.
Dennis’s slow deliberations frustrated a number of his staff, as well as fans who complained on the internet. Even when he discussed the team’s driver lineup at a board meeting last week, there was still no decision.
A power struggle at the top between Dennis and his fellow shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, the Saudi Arabian entrepreneur, may have been one reason for the impasse.
Button said all along that he did not want to stay for the sake of money. He is already ranked Britain’s richest sportsman in the Sunday Times Rich List with £68m, and he merely sought a sum that recognised his status as world champion in 2009.
Sportsmail has been told he settled for a heavily reduced salary to accommodate the £25m a year that Alonso will be paid on his return from Ferrari to the team where he spent a turbulent season in 2007.