It is going to be bad news later today for the Danes with Jenson Button expected to be retained by McLaren for one more year, alongside Fernando Alonso. Kevin Magnussen will presumably be retained as the team’s reserve driver, although there is already one in the former of Stoffel Vandoorne. The team was keen on keeping the Dane but it seems that the board felt that Button was a better choice. Obviously there is also some boardroom politics going on, but we must wait to see how this all pans out. To be fair to Jenson, in the final races of the year he did a much better job than Magnussen. JB will thus get a 16th season in the sport. He is already the third driver in F1 history in terms of race starts but will need 2015 and 2016 if he is to pass Michael Schumacher’s total and 2017 as well to overhaul Rubens Barrichello’s record of 322 starts.
While there is no doubt some celebration on the Button camp, the challenge will be to do a better job than Fernando Alonso next year. That will not be easy but Button has the advantage of having had his “feet under the table” at McLaren for five seasons. The worry is that the season may not be a bed of roses with the new Honda engine to be developed and the possibility that this will not be up to speed with the existing units. Alonso has a long-term deal with the team and so will benefit from the work while Button may end up doing the hard graft and then handing his car over to Magnussen when it is more competitive. Time will tell.
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joeblogsf1 
Good news .
Hopefully Jenson will show Alonso the same “respect” Jacques Villeneuve when he joined BAR. Jenson beat him over the season. In fact that seems to happen more often than not, JB ends the season with more points than the other driver in the team.
Excellent news! Anything could happen. If the car/engine are good, Jenson
could easily do enough to stay on. If the car/engine aren’t good then Fernando
could leave and we end up with Mclaren’s 2014 line up all over again.
While he cannot stay forever and Mag will probably get the benefit of his hard work, its the correct decision for short term for the team. they should get some good development and get some points haul at a difficult time.
plus it’s good for F1 to have former champions still driving.
McL and Fer will have 4 champions and 8 championships between them.
Joe, where does this the McLaren ownership power struggle? I assume this means RD has failed to raise the cash to buy a majority stake? Will he now be ousted?
What are your thoughts of how this will detract from the business of pulling together to get back to competativeness?
Who knows?
I assume this means RD has failed to raise the cash to buy a majority stake? Will he now be ousted?
Maybe Fernando has already been busy behind the scenes at McLaren?
I think you are mixing up two different things.
I’m pleased and relieved at this outcome as if it falls as Joe has described then it would seem that no one has particularly lost out.
Although I do have concerns as to where this leaves Ron Dennis.
Presumably this means no big Danish title sponsor?
I think I’m right in saying that Jenson is the only team mate to have beaten Lewis on points, it is great to have the prospect of seeing him go against Alonso.
So Dennis didn’t manage to woo the potential Danish sponsors (https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/dennis-goes-to-denmark/). I’m sure this was a significant factor in the delaying of the decision.
We don’t know yet
Mclaren now have the second strongest driver pairing in F1.
And Jenson and Fernando are now united – in their opinion of Mr Dennis …
What makes you think Button thinks ill of Dennis?
I hope this is true.
For me it makes perfect sense to keep Button on for one more year as I cannot but think that 2015 will be nothing more than a year of character building (especially the 1st half) where experience will be at a premium as the car and engine package is developed.
Keeping Magnussen as the reserve drive also makes sense as he could be given some time in the car and then be brought in when the car improves or if a new title sponsor comes in and requests it. His presence will be a reminder to the race drivers (if they need it) that they need to keep performing.
Personally I believe that Button is a driver who seems to be slightly underrated in the market and I would not be surprised to see him give Alonso, who I rate alongside Hamilton as the fastest race driver(s), the hurry up in a few races. My gut feeling is if both drivers have a full season then there will be little difference in points between Alonso and Button at the end of the season.
Buttons main weakness seems to be his lack of aggressive qualifying – he is several hundred percent better on Sunday’s than Saturday’s – but he’s been up against one lap demons like Lewis and (allegedly) Magnusson (the NEW Hamilton Mr Dennis seemed to keep saying). Now Alonso isn’t the best one lap qualifier either and so this is a different challenge to Button. I don’t expect either of them to be getting much faster in their mid 30s – but they will get wilier – so should be fun to watch who can claw further forward on race day. Although a Button fan I’d suspect Alonso, but you never know.
Well Alonso put Raikkonen in the shade quite convincingly in qualifying this year (often by some margin), and Raikkonen has always been renowned as a great qualifier.
I tend to agree with you Joe, but here’s hoping that the Honda guys can get the engine performing sooner rather than later.
Lets hope he has an equivalent year to the last he had to take a pay cut for!
Henson also has the advantage to havering Lewis as a teammate who was also rated as much faster. I my opinion he came out of that match up OK.
Joe, what do you think this means for Mclaren?
Does it mean that RD has failed in his attempt to raise the finance to buy out his partners?
If so, what is his likely future with the organisation that he, with the help of Bruce Mclaren’s original team and a major nudge from Shell created?
Or, am I reading far too much into this?
I think you are reading too much into it.
Not 100% sure that Shell can take too much credit for the Project 4 merger! Marlboro, yes… but Shell was with ATS at the time. Very pretty cars, those.
Thanks for the correction – it’s strange, because I did know that it was Marlboro who were the driving force behind the merger/takeover, but for some reason this morning I had it in my mind that it was Shell!! Weird!
I think Jenson may move to Williams or Ferrari for 2016……Kimi needs a brilliant season not to be replaced and Bottas and Massa are out of contract at the end of 2015.
Joe
McLaren are fast becoming the English Ferrari Team. What a mess this decision making process has been. They should just move the McLaren team to Maranello. It’s a wonder McLaren didn’t try to rehire Kimi after the stellar season he just had.
Good news. I don’t recall Button ever being shown up by anyone on a consistent basis. If he does, as I suspect, OK against Alonso then he can retire with his head held high. I’d suggest he goes WEC. And make cute babies with the gorgeous Jessica.
So pleased that Jenson’s been retained (if confirmed) even if salary has been cut by 50%, I expect he can earn bonuses, which he may need to pay for the Wedding First !
It’s not often I whoop with joy when the F1 news filters through my newsfeed in the morning but this has really bucked the sport’s recent trend.
My gut tells me that this will be Jenson’s last season in F1, but hopefully by Abu Dhabi next year he will be allowed a proper send-off by his team.
Or, if the car is woefully uncompetitive & Alonso plays musical chairs again, at least Mclaren still have an experienced world champ on their books.
Is there any truth in the rumor that McLaren bought (or at least funding) Caterham to function as their own junior team for Magnussen and maybe even Stoffel? Or just a brainfart from a wannabe F1 journalist?
I think the latter
A sad day for us Danes. I agree, JB has been the better performer this season. However, he has much more experience to benefit from, and I’m afraid that McLaren will just come up with another ‘star quality driver’ to replace JB after next (or next again) season, which will leave Kevin with one or two wasteful years with McLaren.
Money talks, the sad truth of F1. On behalf of McLaren, I’m afraid 2015 will be a challenging year with the new engine setup, and with a salary expense totalling around £25-30 mio pr. month, it won’t take many races before the pressure and stress gets to McLaren…
It’ll be refreshing to see some strong late-season performances getting somebody a drive (or helping to, at least), not just drivers swept up and dropped somewhere else by all the silly-season rubbish.
I can see JB raising his game, like when Hamilton was his team-mate. That’s assuming all these early reports aren’t “It’s a Girl!” stories about a baby boy.
Poor old Jenson, just beginning to think he didn’t have to schlep to Woking anymore, just about to tear up his McLaren Christmas card list and looking forward to a nice Porsche road car to drive round Buckinghamshire with Mark.
Fast forward to British GP weekend, Saturday, about 4pm when he announces his retirement at the end of 2015.
Especially silly in all this is an apparent (significant) pay-cut that JB has taken.
Lined up against FA’s stratospheric, mooted salary and it makes me (continue to) shake my head…
That said, I suspect JB will take it all in stride and remain the great racer and gentlemen that he is.
McLaren was in a position of power in all negotiations. Thus I would expect FA, JB and KM to be cheaper deals than one would expect. perhaps they will say otherwise but it makes no sense that McLaren gave too much away.
It has been reported that Alonso’s salary is paid by Honda, not?
Reported by whom?
Great news!
JB is one one those drivers who seems to find the odd tenth here and there when up against a strong team mate. This is not a put down and he is by no means unique in that respect.
I have some hope that the intra team battle will be exciting and close.
Lovely news all around. Wouldn’t it be fun if Honda was somehow able to come up with a winner right out of the gate. And I always loved that red and white livery.
Joe – it would be interesting to get your insight into the relative strength of the engineering teams lined up next year. This being a big factor in the likely results, as we saw this year.
It seems that only Mercedes (and perhaps Williams) has a stable team. The other majors are bedding down new signings, which may be too late to have any influence on the 2015 cars.
Thanks
Am I reading this right: ” …the third driver in F1 history in terms of race starts…”? I still think of him as a new boy. Makes me feel kinda old!