27 October 2009 / REUTERS, LONDON
Formula One world champion Jenson Button is 99 percent certain to stay with the Brawn team next season, team principal and owner Ross Brawn said on Sunday after reports linking the Briton with rivals McLaren.
“Jenson is obviously a great driver and for those teams without their full complement of drivers, he’s got to be a target,” Brawn told BBC radio. “We want Jenson to stay in the team and I think we’ll find a solution. Jenson has a contract with us but of course that contract is not the salary of a world champion, not the salary of a team that’s now in a much stronger position than it was 10 months ago. We are working with Jenson to find a balance between what we can afford and what he feels is fair for his status and contribution he can make in the future. You are never 100 percent [certain] but I’d say 99,” he added when asked how sure he was that Button, who clinched the title in Brazil this month with a race to spare, would be staying. Brawn said he hoped a deal could be settled within two weeks of the final race in Abu Dhabi this coming weekend, although it could come sooner.
