McLaren’s Formula One team were humiliated at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday as they claimed their two world champions, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, would be with them next year – only to have this immediately questioned by the bemused drivers.
Britain’s leading F1 team endured an embarrassing afternoon on and off the track, which is owned by their engine supplier, Honda, as Lewis Hamilton cruised to his eighth win of the season for Mercedes to equal his idol Ayrton Senna’s total of 41 victories.
Alonso and Button again failed to score a point between them, finishing 11th and 16th, with the former criticising the Honda power unit on the team radio. But an hour before the race started Ron Dennis, the McLaren Group’s chairman and chief executive, confirmed that both Button, who has another year left on his contract, and Alonso, who has two, would be staying with the struggling team who are bracketed with Manor at the bottom of the constructors’ championship.
Dennis, who arrived late in Suzuka after being confined to his Tokyo hotel room with a virus, said: “Jenson has a two-year contract [including this year] and we are not changing. He will be in a McLaren next year, as far as I am concerned, and as far as he is concerned at this moment in time.” He then confirmed that Alonso, too, would remain at the team.
After the race and when pressed by Sky Sports on whether Button and Alonso would be staying, he said: “Yes, yes, yes. What is simpler than they’ve all got contracts, everyone has to live by their contracts, why don’t you just leave it at that?”
However,, also speaking after the race, Button denied that his mind was made up. “You’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on something that I don’t know the future on.” And he suggested Dennis had made a pre-emptive judgment after talks that took place on Thursday and again at the track before the race.
“It’s not the right time to say anything yet because nothing is done,” said Button. “I speak to Ron a lot. There have been private meetings. I’ve never talked about our private matters. That’s all I’m going to say.”
But Button did not come out of Sunday looking much better than Dennis. The driver, who allowed himself to be strung along by the team a year ago and who said categorically a week ago that his mind was made up – with the likelihood that he would leave – was then asked if he wanted to carry on racing. He replied: “I want to race, in a competitive car. If we have a competitive car in Formula One, I want to race. That’s what every driver dreams of. We’re out there to compete at the front.”
When asked what would be the situation if the McLaren car, as expected, is not competitive, he replied, confusedly: “Who knows?”
Meanwhile, when Alonso was asked if he would be in Formula One next year he replied: “I don’t know.” He had already upset McLaren and Honda by being critical during the race. He described the power unit as “a GP2” engine and said it was “embarrassing” when passed by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.
After he was told about that incident, an angry Dennis said: “I am not going to condone those sorts of things, because it doesn’t show the professionalism that I would like all our drivers to show. Maybe it was not a particularly constructive way to communicate with everyone at Honda.”
McLaren, without a title sponsor since 2013, after losing Vodafone, and who will be another £20m worse off next year after Johnnie Walker and Santander withdrew their backing, are hoping to announce a new sponsor in the next few weeks. But fresh deals will be difficult to strike with their team a shambles, and their drivers uncertain whether they are staying.
