Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren still hopes to persuade Button to stay

McLaren still hopes to persuade Jenson Button to remain with the team in 2016, according to chief operating officer Jonathan Neale.

Button's future has become the centre of speculation once again following reports in British newspapers claiming the 2009 world champion would announce his retirement from F1 this weekend. However, Button declined to reveal his plans for next season when questioned on Thursday.

With Button saying he is "in good talks" with McLaren, Neale says the team remains keen to keep hold of the 35-year-old.

"I get the sense from the media there was a big anti-climax yesterday and there was a lot of discussion about where Jenson was at," Neale said. "Jenson is a fantastic guy, a world champion and a big part of the family at Honda and McLaren – he’s been with us for six seasons – and we’re contracted with him, we want him to stay, we like him very much.

"But if your driver doesn’t really want to be in the seat we have to respect that. I really hope that we have done enough between us to continue those discussions with him and have the confidence to have him with us, and that’s what we’d like."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.