Confirmed: Button To McLaren
Button joins Hamilton as Raikkonen goes rallying - and Schuey is rumoured to be joining Mercedes
Button has jumped ship to McLaren
The move comes just days after Brawn GP, the team with which Button won this year's driver's world championship, was snapped up by Mercedes in a £100m buy-out.
McLaren has now secured the services of the world champions from the past two seasons, forming the most potentially rapid - and explosive - combination since McLaren stuck Ayrton Senna in a car next to Alain Prost back in 1988 and said 'go race'.
Over at Mercedes GP (nee Brawn), the driver line-up is still to be decided. With Button having turned down a seat (obviously) rumours are rife, with an all-German pairing of Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld the current favoured solution.
There is speculation that one Michael Schumacher could even make a comeback, a rumour fuelled by the enigmatic comments of Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug. "I have every understanding that all the people in Formula 1 worldwide want to know who the drivers will be now," said Haug. "It's not finally decided, but I think and hope we can announce something in the course of the next couple of weeks. We will do a very good job in that respect as well I can promise you - and maybe we can create some surprises."
Kimi waves goodbye to Ferrari
And even if Kimi doesn't do anything next season, he's hardly going to be short of cash - Ferrari have paid him approximately 20 million euros in order to terminate his F1 contract and get their hands on Fernando Alonso.
I think lewis will have outright lap pace (quali) but on a longer run...should be interesting!
Also, i hope schuey does make a comeback cant see him going to Mercedes GP after his loyal devotion to Ferrari - would love to be proved wrong though!
Whether its an official photoshop or a fan pic, there is this picture of a Mercedes GP-ised Brawn
And if he ever fancies watching an F1 race he calls up Ferrari or Merclaren and propably watches it from the pit lane with a glass of champers.
but who's the team primary driver ?
everyone says Hammo, but he isn't the current WDC
Jens has No.1 on his car
You could argue that the guy being paid the most is the #1
or that the guy with #1 on his car is the #1
The reality is that Button and Hamilton will technically have equal status, but Hamilton will be more settled with the team, more familiar with the people, and have a better handle on how the team responds to change.
So even if Button was a notional number 1, he'd still be somewhat on the back foot.
Hope he handles it better than Alonso did. He needs to make his presence felt in the garage, gel with the mechanics and engineers, and get his head down working with them, as long as it takes, to get his setups right and understand the car fully. That's what Hamilton does, and any less will IMO mean eventual failure to beat LH consistently.
Norbert Haug talks about surprises....
I was in Abu Dhabi for the GP and at the After party at the Emirates palace I took this pic. I thought it was just the German F1 Mafia having a few drinks.... but Vettel and Haug were talking and mucking around like mates for hours and hours....
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