So did Jenson Button make the right choice?
As the world champion you’d think that he’d be able to call the shots and get whatever he wants out of the team but Jenson Button chose to walk away from the championship winning Brawn team as they become Mercedes in favour of McLaren where he seems to be walking into the lions den, so was this a good choice?
Firstly this is the man who bought himself out of a Williams deal that seemed like a good plan at the time to drive a dog of a Honda that is until he won the championship last year – so we have to assume he has pretty sound judgement. Now we know that Mercedes had been courting Michael Schumacher it would seem that moving to the team that made the most progress last year and where as an arriving world champion he can make some demands is a good idea. McLaren in all likelihood will have a better car than Mercedes for the start of the season so from that point of view as well it’s a good decision but then he’s moving to a team that is built around Lewis Hamilton, we’ve seen that from the season with Alonso. Button has forced some changes at McLaren to try and deal with this imbalance so perhaps he has more influence but it’s still a big risk, though I think that it’ll be closer than people seem to think.
What were Button’s other options though? With Michael Schumacher on the way in and another German driver already signed at the time it seems JB’s negotiation room was very tight and it seems McLaren could indeed be a very good move in terms of driving a competitive car. He starts his new job proper on the 3rd of February so will it be the start of new chapter of success or the beginning of the end?
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