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Brawn brassed off with Jenson Button as he signs for rivals McLaren
David Smith19 Nov 2009
Jenson Button has been condemned for turning his back on the Brawn GP team which helped him realise his dream of becoming Formula One world champion.
Nick Fry, chief executive of Brawn GP, hit out following Button's move to rivals McLaren where next season he will partner Lewis Hamilton in an all-British dream team.
Fry said he failed to understand why Button had made his decision to quit Brawn, relaunched this week as Mercedes Grand Prix following a takeover by the German car company.
Rejecting reports that McLaren had lured his man away with the offer a bigger retainer, believed to be worth around £18million over three years, Fry claimed Button will actually receive less than if he had stayed at Brawn.
Fry said: "Clearly, loyalty would be nice but in this day and age you don't expect too much of that. I'm always happy when any employee leaves our company if I think that they've made the right decision and they are going to a better job. They always go with our blessing if that is the situation.
"In this situation, we don't understand the logic of the decision. I think Jenson is going to have to up his game if he's going to beat Lewis."
Fry believes Button would have had a better chance of becoming the first of Britain's 10 world champions to successfully defend their title if he had driven on for Mercedes.
He said: "We feel that we gave Jenson a car that enabled him to win the world championship, and we hoped he'd have stuck with us for that reason as we are very confident we can provide a race-winning car for next season."
According to Fry, Button would also have been better paid as a Mercedes driver with Nico Rosberg as his teammate.
He said: "We believe that our offer was in excess of what Jenson has accepted from McLaren. Jenson has indicated to me personally that may well be the case.
"We made what we thought was a very generous offer for a new contract which was significantly in excess of the frankly spurious figures that were put out to the press."
Fry rejected criticism that he and team principal Ross Brawn should have tied Button to a lucrative new deal before both the drivers' and constructors' titles were finally put beyond the grasp of the pursuing Red Bull cars in the season's penultimate Brazilian Grand Prix.
He said: "Unfortunately, we were between a rock and a hard place on this. Ideally, the discussions should have been completed before the end of the season. But because of the way that the championship was going, the last thing we wanted was to distract the driver with contract negotiations.
"We didn't really start serious discussions until the end of the season. That was the right decision, because there was enough going on on the racing side to fully occupy us and Jenson without having the burden of contract discussions on top of that."
Reader views (11)
If Ross Brawn doesn't complete a last minute management buy out of the honda team, with the full support and consent of the honda principles, Button doesn't even have a drive this year.
By all accounts Button is a really nice guy, never heard anyone say a bad word about him personally but he seems to have forgotten how long he had been in the wilderness, and the williams years must seem a distant memory.
at the end of the day, he left a team who offered him what he asked for, to go to a team with a star in residence. that probably isn't going to work out real well, but then you never know...
- Scotty, London, 19/11/2009 16:21
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Why are people reading into these articles as if Button has moved purely based on money? Once again he has proved it's not about money. He's moved to a proven winning team, that for years have consistently produced a car capable of winning GP's. This, plus I truly believe he thinks he can beat Hamilton in his own team.
People read way too much into the articles, I think Jenson is a pretty straight forward guy and what he has said in interviews is the truth, he enjoys the challenge of racing the best (on a equal footing) and he will get that with McLaren.
- James, Sheffield, 19/11/2009 15:51
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One year from now it will be very interesting to see whether Jenson chasing a bigger pay cheque will return him to the also rans, whence he came, or to a second title.
I think his own limitations are about to be cruelly confirmed. Alonso could not be number one at Maclaren, and he had two world titles and, so I find it hard to believe Jenson will be anymore successful.
Loyalty is a two way street and Jenson may well regret his decision because Maclaren are now likely to have two Number One drivers, that is 1(A) & 1(B).
- Ken.H, Harrow. UK, 19/11/2009 14:19
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Who has lied here? I thought Brawn had said Button could make up the difference in personal sponsorship? Not the same as a salary and certainly he was offering a one year deal.
- Terry, Hennebont France, 19/11/2009 13:55
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If Ross Brawn had been such a greedy so-and-so, all would have been well and Jenson would have most likely stayed at Brawn GP. Now Ross stands to gain $100 million and he offers Jenson a pittance to stay, after giving the team it's dual championships. Sorry Ross, you reap what you sow.
- Dave, London, London UK, 19/11/2009 13:21
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He was loyal to the team for a number of years when they were not competitive and took a big salary deduction to keep the team alive. For the team then to mess him around having won the championship was short sighted if they seriously wanted to keep him. Ultimately I think Jenson made the right and a brave decision to compete with Hamilton at McLaren. There will be nowhere to hide and I respect that.
- Dr Who, London, 19/11/2009 13:21
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This was not about loyalty. The new owners, Mercedes made statements saying they wanted two German drivers. jensen Button had also been offered far less by Brawn than a world champion could expect. Its no wonder he has gone where he is wanted.
- Bob, London, 19/11/2009 13:03
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you say you want £8m a year, negotiations continue, and you get offered £8m a year?
can't blame Brawn, though I wonder who is advising Button - seems he has his head turned.
- Scotty, London, 19/11/2009 13:01
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It's like football, a business pure and simple. Still fun if you don't take it too seriously.
- Sandy, Ealing, London, 19/11/2009 11:44
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The reality is Nick Fry blew it by antagonising Jenson with a derisory initial offer. By the time he went grown-up the damage was done. The common-sense interpretation is that Button's victory was 50% car and 50% his performance. He is worth £8m a year, that is what he asked for initially, that is what Brawn should have offered initially, rather than trying to lowball him like he was a two-bedroom flat in Streatham
- Gw, London, 19/11/2009 11:27
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Very little loyalty left in sport these days. Money talks.
- Alex Beveridge, Cumbernauld Scotland., 19/11/2009 10:55
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