Abu Dhabi: One can’t really understand what’s going through the mind of McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis. He definitely seems to be enjoying keeping both his driver guessing.
Jenson Button enjoyed a good ‘barbecue’ with his team ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi but as far as his future goes he was still in limbo.
It clearly looks like Button will line-up at the start grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix knowing that it will be probably for the last time he is racing in Formula One. It’s clearly not a nice situation for a driver of Button’s stature to be in. However, he can do very little other than carry on the agonising wait.
“Nothing has changed for me, for the last two months. So I have nothing else to add, apart from that I go into this weekend looking forward to it. I’ve learnt to live in the moment a lot more this year and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” said Button during the official F1 briefing on Thursday.
“I’ve got my family here this weekend, so looking forward to it and hopefully we can have a good result,” he added.
McLaren has already announced that Dennis has pushed back his deadline on deciding on Button’s future till early December. The management reportedly considering who should partner Fernando Alonso — widely tipped to be returning to the team — next season.
Dennis is clearly given himself extra time to decide whether the other driver be a world champion or McLaren’s rookie racer, Kevin Magnussen, who will also be under extra pressure as he also has that one last opportunity to prove his worth and secure a seat for 2015. Button, who will be racing for the 266th time, brushed aside the view that a better performance in the final race might change his fortunes.
“I don’t think that is a reason and that will have any effect on the decision making. Lats two years have been a bit tricky in terms of result. We had a barbecue last night and there is such good atmosphere in the team. It like a big family so I will wait for the decision? ”
When reminded that he has the third longest career in Formula one history said: “At this point it is everything I set out to achieve. I think when you’re a kid your dream is to get to Formula one, your dream is to win a race and then the world championship. I’ve achieved all three of those. Is that enough for a driver? Every driver is different. I love racing and that’s why, as I said not thinking about future too much.”
