Official: Button joins Hamilton at McLaren

The McLaren-Mercedes team has just confirmed Jenson Button’s contract for the next season. He thus joins his compatriot Lewis Hamilton. There will therefore be the last two world champions from the past two years in the same team. The announcement of an agreement between the Briton and McLaren follows weeks of feverish speculation about the reigning champion’s future. These speculations intensified after he visited the McLaren factory last Friday.

Although Button initially planned to stay with the Brawn team that offered him the 2009 title, negotiations with Ross Brawn’s team ended in a deadlock over the issue of salary. The Briton had taken a pay cut to help the team get through the Honda phase in a difficult financial situation. Now, logically, he was asking for a salary increase after winning the championship: “It’s always a tough decision to leave a team where you’ve been for so long,” said Button. “But life is a series of challenges and the most important of all is to overcome yourself.”

« Thus, and even though I won the world championship with Brawn GP last year, and will never forget it, I have always been adamant that I wanted to continue setting new challenges for myself. That’s why I decided to join the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. »

One can’t help but be touched by the phenomenal story of this team. McLaren is one of the great names in this sport and its results are impressive: Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, and of course my new teammate Lewis Hamilton have been champions. I have dreamed of being in the McLaren team since I was a little boy.

McLaren initially lined up Kimi Räikkönen to fill their second seat, but these discussions also didn’t succeed due to remuneration issues, leading the Finnish driver to take a sabbatical year from Formula 1 for 2010. This left the path clear for Button to take the vacant position. This transfer ends a seven-year relationship between Button and his former team. He joined when it was still called BAR in 2003 and remained despite tough seasons under the Honda name. This year, he has just experienced a true fairy tale.

Button admitted to being deeply impressed by McLaren since the start of negotiations: “When I visited the ‘McLaren Technology Centre’ earlier this month, it wasn’t just the technical resources and standards of excellence that impressed me,” he said. “No, I was also struck by the ambition, motivation, and spirit of conquest that runs through everyone. And then there’s the team’s history with all those trophies.”

« From a personal point of view, it is also a great pleasure to join another British world champion. Lewis has reached an incredible level of success in a very short period of time. He is a wonderfully gifted driver who has earned the respect of every Formula 1 driver. I am sure there is a lot we can learn from each other. I am really looking forward to using our combined knowledge to push the team forward. »

With Button no longer on the transfer market, Nico Rosberg is expected to be announced as the number 1 driver for Mercedes GP, with Nick Heidfeld as a possible second driver. Button, therefore, replaces Heikki Kovalainen at McLaren. The Finn has achieved only one victory in his last two seasons as Hamilton’s teammate. He struggled to find a race pace this season, despite some good performances in qualifying. He will likely find himself in 2010 with one of the new teams like Lotus or ManorGP, unless he returns to Renault?