Why McLaren should pick Button

Formula 1 doesn’t stop, just two days after the final race in Abu Dhabi finished, crowning Lewis Hamilton world champion for a second time, testing began in earnest as teams tried out new parts, new drivers and in McLaren’s case a new power unit, the Honda hybrid engine making its public debut although it only completed 5 laps.

Driving the car was Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren young driver and runner-up in GP2 this year in his rookie season. There are rumours floating around that Vandoorne could be the one to partner the yet to be announced Fernando Alonso at McLaren in 2015. McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has poured cold water on this idea, it’s most probable he’ll stay in GP2 for one more year, and I’m not sure Alonso would appreciate being partnered by a rookie at McLaren.

The Woking team say they’ll announce their 2015 line-up on December 1^st. If we assume, and I think it’s fairly safe to say that Alonso is one of the drivers, then who will be the second? It’s certainly between current incumbents Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen.

I could easily make a case for Magnussen to stay on. He’s young and has had a fairly impressive rookie campaign, took second in his first race, out qualified Jenson nine times, had a number of spectacular and aggressive drivers and will only improve in his second year. Being part of the McLaren driver program, they surely would want their protégé to get a good chance.

But this is Formula 1, it’s a tough place to be and after his second place in Australia, Magnussen was fairly mediocre for a while, failing to get to grips with the tyre management, getting too many penalties for his aggressive driving, couldn’t out-qualify Button over the whole season and had less than half the points too. Is that really good enough?

McLaren have been very unfair on their current drivers, pawing over Alonso, trying to persuade the Spaniard that he should return to the team he had such an acrimonious departure from after just one year in 2007. Particularly I think they could have shown Button more respect as a world champion rather than getting to the final race not knowing whether this was to be his last or not.

After 15 seasons but still only 34 years old, albeit 35 at the start of 2015, Button has had an impressive career. He’s come back against the odds when all seemed lost, particularly after 2008. He took his title opportunity in 2009, and then raced brilliantly against Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, where more often than not he was the equal of him, and sometimes just better.

I’m not going to talk about Button’s career as if it’s over, because in my opinion his time in Formula 1 should have at least another couple of years left. But looking back everyone expected Button to be trampled on by Lewis’ speed at McLaren despite being the reigning champion when he joined McLaren. But he raised his game to meet the challenge.

Yes he wasn’t as strong as him in qualifying, and his main problem is working around problems if the car isn’t to his liking, but that wasn’t seen as much at McLaren when up against Lewis. Button actually out pointed Lewis over their three years together and only took two victories less.

Give Button the car and he can be unbeatable, just look at Belgium in 2012, no one could get near him that weekend. Perhaps those weekends don’t come round often enough, but if you need a fast reliable racer who will get the job done, then Button is your driver.

Sergio Perez last year and Magnussen this year have both been young chargers who may have the raw speed but ultimately have been out performed by Button. He will bring home the points. He’s also very good with developing a car. As McLaren enter a new era with Honda, that expertise will be crucial especially in the first year.

Jenson also is popular in Japan and with Honda having worked with them while at BAR which became the Honda F1 team which is now Mercedes. His knowledge of how they work could make it easier to develop the car at a quicker rate from the driver’s perspective.

Alonso is probably still the best overall driver on the grid and his capture by McLaren is seriously good news for the team, but as good as I think Button has been the last couple of years, I think like with Lewis, he’ll be step up again and be more than a match for Fernando and there’ll probably be less of the tension.

In the end I think Alonso would have the better of Button, but Jenson will give as good as he gets and he would not let the Spaniard have everything his own way. In fact he could even surprise Alonso, if the chassis is decent then Button is just as good at running a race as he is. That competition would surely drive the team forward at a quicker rate. I don’t see Magnussen being able to offer that same competitive edge to Alonso just yet.

I do see him being able to learn a lot with a year as a test and reserve driver for the team with the aim being to slot in in 2016 if a seat became available. In the end though I think it’s going to come down to age and money. Button would realistically only be around for another couple of years in the sport whereas Magnussen can get much better and is very young and also very cheap.

I believe Magnussen deserves a second chance, but I think he’d benefit from a learning year, it certainly did Alonso no harm at all. And personally I’d love to see Button have a crack at Alonso, it would be a lot closer than many might think and the team would benefit from the car being developed by two experienced racers. Alonso is in a hurry to get a third crown, he’s only a year younger than Button, and if he’s smart, I get the feeling he’s already got some influence over the team so desperate were they to get him, then he’d use that to make them keep Button so as to sort the car out and make it competitive quicker, rumours go he’s already working on it.

Talking about the better numbers Button has against Magnussen Boullier told autosport that ‘If it was all about statistics, it would be really easy…but it is not like this’. McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis is said to want Magnussen while other senior staff would prefer Button. Unfortunately you get the feeling Button may well have driven his last race in Formula 1 and that’s a great shame for the sport and McLaren as he’s one of the most genuine and sporting guys out there. Still, the World Endurance Championship is growing nicely and it’s been a while since anyone has done the F1 championship and Le Mans double.

all photos taken from autosport.com