London: Jenson Button will be kept in the dark about his future in Formula One until McLaren have a definitive answer from Fernando Alonso in their attempt to bring the Spaniard back to the struggling team.
Button and his management are unable to make plans for next year. The 2009 world champion, along with rookie Kevin Magnussen, will only learn after the season’s conclusion if they are to be offered a new contract.
If Alonso does make the plunge, it is thought that it will be Button who gives way after 15 seasons in the sport, not Magnussen. Ron Dennis, the McLaren group chairman, has spoken with Alonso over a move back from Ferrari after their acrimonious split at the end of 2007.
The two fell out spectacularly over Dennis’s failure to give Alonso No 1 status within the team and over the ‘spygate’ affair. It is understood that a potential deal would be worth about $32 million (Dh117.5 million) a year to Alonso, including finance from the team’s new engine supplier, Honda, as well as Santander, making him the best-paid driver in the sport.
Button has been enjoying a solid season, but in recent races Magnussen has started to assert himself.
The Dane, 21, has outqualifed Button in six of 12 races this year, and defended firmly but fairly from his team-mate last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. Button, 34, has grown increasingly weary of questions over his future and age this year, but he conceded last weekend in Belgium that he could be forced into retirement at the end of the season. “We haven’t sat down and talked about it,” the Englishman told the BBC.
“If I have to retire at the end of the season then so be it, but I feel I have so much more to give and I can’t imagine life without motorsport and especially Formula One.”
Eric Boullier, the McLaren racing director, admitted that the situation was “uncomfortable” for both his drivers, but he said that the team were keeping their options open for as long as possible.
Boullier said: “It is true that with Ron [Dennis] being back since January and me being new into the team we have asked for a little bit more time than necessary, but we can afford this time, even if it is uncomfortable for the drivers, which I understand. We have to put our priorities [first].”
Marco Mattiacci, the Ferrari team principal, has said publicly that he expects Alonso to stay in 2015, but there has been no official confirmation.
It is thought that a move to McLaren for 2016 is more likely, as it will allow Alonso time to evaluate the new McLaren-Honda partnership as well as any potential Ferrari improvement.
That scenario would give Button one more year in the sport, although McLaren are monitoring Lewis Hamilton’s situation at Mercedes, as well as both the Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.
While Alonso has a contract until the end of 2016, it is thought that it contains a performance clause allowing the 33-year-old Spaniard to leave if Ferrari fail to finish third in the constructors’ championship. With seven races remaining, Ferrari are third, but their cushion over Williams in fourth is just 10 points. The Grove-based team have been quicker for much of the year, and the rising star Valtteri Bottas now has five podiums in the past six races.
Despite the speculation, McLaren acknowledge they have much bigger problems than their drivers. Their 2014 car, with the best engine, is still well off the pace. Their old knack for improving troubled machines in the middle of a season seems to have disappeared, and the organisation at Woking is still regarded as too top-heavy. However, there is hope thanks to their reunification with Honda, as well as the arrival of highly regarded designers such as Peter Prodromou from Red Bull.
Yet, a star signing in the driver market would buoy the team and show Honda that despite troubled times McLaren still have significant clout. It would leave Button on the brink and little time for the Englishman to sort out another drive for the 2015 season.
— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2014
