England’s Jenson Button will race for McLaren-Honda in 2016. The 2009 best on the planet had been considering his future however the 35-year-old said McLaren’s determination to enhance taking after a troublesome year was unequivocal in his choice to race on. McLaren director Ron Dennis said a choice to end his agreement “turned into an immateriality” once he was certain Button was “as dedicated and engaged as ever”.
There was no notice in the announcement of Button’s team-mate Fernando Alonso. The Spanish two-time title holder is contracted to the team until the end of 2017, yet his future is in uncertainty after he said after the Japanese Grand Prix that he “didn’t have inkling” whether he would be hustling in F1 one year from now. He later put out a progression of tweets which appeared to reconfirm his dedication to the team. Inquired as to why there was no notice of Alonso in the announcement, a McLaren representative said: “Today speaks the truth Jenson.” Catch, who has been with McLaren since 2010, had denied throughout the weekend in Japan to say anything solid in regards to his future.
In any case, the McLaren explanation made it clear that he would be held on the terms of his unique contract, which directs a pay ascend from $10m (£6.9m) to $15m (£10.3m) next season. Dennis included that Button’s “abundance of experience makes him an enormously profitable advantage for our team – he is likewise remarkably fit and as super-quick as ever.
Button said, “Over the past month or so I have done quite a lot of thinking, and it is no secret that I was at one point in two minds about my future. But I have been a McLaren driver for six seasons now, and in that time I have got to know Ron very well. He and I have had some very good chats these past few weeks, and during those chats it has become clear to me that Ron is both utterly determined and uniquely equipped to lead our team through its current difficulties to great successes in the future. That gives me great confidence, and it is for that reason that, together, he and I have decided to continue our partnership. As soon as I had made that decision, straight away I realized it was the correct one. Granted, this year has not been an easy one for us, but we know what we need to do to improve things and, in collaboration with Honda, we will work extremely hard over the next weeks and months in order to make sure that 2016 will be a much better season than 2015 has been.”
