Formula 1
Expects advise Button to stay with Brawn
A number of Formula One insiders and experts believe Jenson Button should ignore McLaren's advances and end the salary standoff with his current team. With the Briton not able to convince Brawn that he should receive a big pay increase for 2010, ...
GMM
Published: Nov 16, 2009, 6:53 PM
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A number of Formula One insiders and experts believe Jenson Button should ignore McLaren's advances and end the salary standoff with his current team.
With the Briton not able to convince Brawn that he should receive a big pay increase for 2010, he travelled last Friday to Woking for a meeting with McLaren's team boss Martin Whitmarsh.
The team is apparently offering more money than Brawn, and Button would take the 'number 1' to the MP4-25, but his teammate would be the 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton.
"I think Jenson needs to be very certain that he wants to go into a team which Hamilton has very much made his own," Niki Lauda is quoted as saying by the Guardian.
"If the money involved is about the same, or even slightly less, then Jenson should stay with Brawn," the triple world champion added.
Another triple world champion, Sir Jackie Stewart, likened Button's move to McLaren to "putting his head into the tiger's den", and revealed that he turned down an offer to be Jim Clark's Lotus teammate for the same reasons in 1965.
"I felt that Jimmy just had his feet too far under the table. I don't think it would have been the right thing for me to do any more than it would be for Jenson at McLaren," said the Scot.
It is also rumoured that Mercedes-Benz and Brawn are poised to announce a major collaboration for 2010 and beyond, which may result in Brawn becoming the new 'works' team while McLaren simply receive the German carmaker's engines.
Commentator and former driver Martin Brundle wrote in his latest column for the Sunday Times: "Button has to get out his crystal ball to work out which team will give him the faster car next year.
"Will McLaren return to top form? Or has the tide turned, given that Brawn and Red Bull won 14 of the 17 races this year?"
Button's friend David Coulthard switched to McLaren from Williams at the end of 1995, and later admitted he regretted opting for more money over the prospect of the best car on the grid.
"Personally, I wouldn't try to cash in and go for a team with more money but which ostensibly doesn't have a winning car," he is quoted as saying by the Daily Star.
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