Jenson Button's future left uncertain

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 21:55

REIGNING Formula 1 champion Jenson Button's future remains uncertain after Mercedes-Benz secured a controlling interest in his Brawn GP team. The German manufacturer will buy 75.1 per cent of Brawn GP in partnership with an Abu Dhabi investment company, with the team to be rebranded as Mercedes Grand Prix and based in Brackley.

Team principal Ross Brawn will remain in his role but the future of Button is less certain. The 2009 champion remains in contract talks with his current team over a new deal and while chief executive Nick Fry – who will also remain in his role – said he and Brawn would prefer Button to remain, he admitted financial constraints may prevent that.

"We have had discussions with Jenson about what we think are a sensible salary," said Fry. "This (takeover by Mercedes] is not going to change anything in that respect. The decision on drivers will be made by Ross, with my help. "It will be our decision on who is going to drive."

Brawn and Button forged a close relationship during a remarkable 2009 season when Button claimed the drivers' title while the team won the constructors' championship at the first time of asking.

Despite their success, it has been widely reported that the new manufacturer has already signed a deal to make German driver Nico Rosberg their new number one, with Button tipped to join McLaren as he seeks a salary increase.

Fry is keen for that scenario to be avoided and added: "I hope Jenson is still with us next season. We've been together for a good few years now and we have succeeded in winning the world championship together and we want Jenson to be with us.

"But we have to recognise that Formula 1 is not divorced from the rest of the world. We have worked within a budget (and] if we spend in one area then we cannot spend in another area.

"The reason we survived as a team was that we operated in a sensible way, within our means."

Fry also played down speculation that Mercedes will look to employ an all-German team next season, with Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock also linked to the team alongside Rosberg.

"That (speculation] is totally incorrect – Mercedes is an international company," he added.

Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug, how-ever, intimated that a change in personnel was on the cards, saying: "Hopefully we can announce this in the next couple of weeks. We will do a good job in that point of view and maybe we can cause some surprises."

Mercedes-Benz's deal with Brawn ushers in a slow break from their current ties with McLaren, who will buy back the German manufacturers' 40 per cent shareholding by 2011. Mercedes will, however, continue to supply engines to McLaren until 2015.

McLaren will continue to be branded as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes with a key reason for their split put down to McLaren's ambition to expand their road-car operation. "This is a win-win situation, for both McLaren and Daimler," McLaren chairman Ron Dennis said. "In order to survive and thrive in 21st-century Formula 1, a team must become much more than merely a team."