How long is jenson buttons contract with mclaren

I have had some very special times racing with Honda, and some difficult times as well, but there is a lot we can do together and achieve together which means a lot to me.

It is definitely a decision that was worth waiting for, and I am very happy to be here now. Q: Fernando is your 11th F1 team mate, and the third world champion to drive alongside you after Jacques Villeneuve and Lewis Hamilton.

You are a world champion yourself of course, so how useful will it be to have a driver of Fernando's calibre alongside you next year? What will it be like having two world champions in the same team? JB: For me in F1 it is so important having experience.

To be racing alongside Fernando really does mean a lot: I think we all know what he has achieved in F1, not just his speed but how he works within a team, and how he is always there fighting.

For me to have a team mate like that really does mean a lot. We have known each other since , we were actually team mates at another team - I was racing and he was test driver, and then he took my seat for the next year laughs. So we know each other pretty well. Button is 17 points ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the championship after an impressive run since winning the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July. Hamilton, who is contracted to McLaren until the end of next season, has welcomed Button's decision to stay on.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh added: "Jenson is a great driver and a great guy. I'm here to fight for the World Championship and whether that's in or not - maybe it won't be, maybe it will be in future years - but I'm hopefully here for the long-term.

Although he has lost his race seat, year-old Magnussen has been kept within the McLaren framework as the team's test and reserve driver. Still just 23, the young Dane's time will come again, although Dennis, when asked to specify the length of deals signed by both Button and Alonso, confirmed: "What I can say with both is they are plural not singular. He didn't ask for a two-year contract. We made a proposal, part of which was two years.

It's understood that Button has taken a substantial pay-cut to stay on, while Alonso's deal is reputed to be one of the biggest in the history of the sport.

But for Button the prospect of going head-to-head with a close friend and the man regarded by many in the pit lane as possibly the fastest of all will just be part of the challenge of defending his title.

McLaren have always had the resources and philosophy required to field two fully competitive cars and have always sought the strongest possible driver line-ups they could engage.

The decision by the newly crowned world champion to leave the team built from the ashes of Honda by Ross Brawn came on the day it was officially announced that Mercedes-Benz had switched allegiances from McLaren and purchased a controlling interest in Brawn GP. They will field their cars under the Mercedes banner in It had been widely thought that Button would remain with the team alongside Nico Rosberg, the preferred Mercedes nominee, for following Rubens Barrichello's move to Williams.

But there are suggestions that Button was never at the top of the Mercedes wish list. In fact, on Sunday Norbert Haug, the Mercedes motor sport vice-president, hinted that the company was already in talks to sign Nick Heidfeld from BMW, raising the possibility of two Germans going head-to-head with two Englishmen for next year's championship.