Button switched for less money and ‘new challenge’ – Mercedes GP in no hurry to replace Button

Angry Brawn chief executive Nick Fry has announced pre-emptively that Jenson Button will not be released to commence work for his new team McLaren in the remaining days of 2009.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the 29-year-old new world champion is under contract until the last day of December.

“Jenson will not be doing anything at all for McLaren until the end of this calendar year,” said Fry.

“And if he does, we will be looking on it very dimly.”

He suggested that Brawn/Mercedes’ position, after their title successes of 2009 and a cooperation dating back seven years, was prompted by Button’s “signing process” with McLaren.

It is rumoured, for example, that Button’s recent visit to McLaren’s Woking headquarters was technically in breach of his existing contract.

“There are other constraints on what Jenson can do between now and the end of the year which we will be rigorously enforcing,” Fry added.

A McLaren spokesman told the Daily Mail: “We haven’t asked Brawn GP to release Jenson early, so this isn’t really an issue for us.”

Button switched for less money and ‘new challenge’

Jenson Button made a final farewell visit to Brawn’s Brackley headquarters this week, prompting “sadness and anger”, according to the Daily Telegraph.

In the wake of his switch to McLaren, the speed of the new world champion’s relationship breakdown with his 2009 team is demonstrated by the fact that Button’s ‘My Championship Year’ book features a foreword by Ross Brawn in which the driver’s “loyalty” is praised.

But while in London to promote the book, Button said he now just hopes to remain friends with Brawn, 55.

Button told BBC’s Five Live radio that he switched to become Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate for the challenge.

“I am actually earning less than I would have been at Brawn so it’s not about the money.  It’s because it’s something new,” said the Briton, whose retainer is about half the size of his countryman teammate’s.

He explained to Reuters Television that after winning the championship, “I thought ’so, what happens now?  Where do I go from here?’.

“I’ve been very comfortable within that (Brawn) team and it (moving to McLaren) is taking me outside of my comfort zone.  That’s why I am doing it.

“I’m not going because it’s going to be easy, I’m going because it’s going to be tough,” added Button.

Mercedes GP in no hurry to replace Button

Boss Ross Brawn has hinted strongly that the newly rebranded Mercedes GP team is only on the market for a single driver for 2010.

It is believed, but not confirmed officially, that German Nico Rosberg has already been signed to the Brackley based outfit.

“We are not in a hurry to find a replacement for Button,” Brawn is quoted as saying by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, after the team’s 2009 champion this week defected to McLaren.

Most strongly connected with Button’s vacated seat are Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld, and even Michael Schumacher.

“It would be stupid to jump now into a fast decision,” Brawn continued.  “We will carefully analyse the list of potential candidates.

“I believe our free cockpit is the most attractive one on the market,” he added, suggesting strongly that the identity of at least one Mercedes GP driver for 2010 is already internally secure.

Mercedes’ Norbert Haug indicated that he is keen on Kimi Raikkonen.

“He has my number.  He can call me at any time,” Haug said, referring to the 30-year-old Finn.

source: GMM