Felipe Massa's retirement from Formula One and the Williams team opened up a space for Jenson Button to continue racing away from the McLaren team as his future continued to be unclear. Now the former world champion has made a decision and it's not so clear cut.
The 36 year old moved to McLaren in 2010 after winning the world title with Brawn in 2009 but other than a second place finish in the 2011 world championship his time with the British team has been largely underwhelming because of the car. The last couple of years have seemed to be one long saga about Button's future and it's still not completely sorted.
After finishing 15th in qualifying for tomorrow's Heineken Italian Grand Prix in Monza the Brit confirmed with McLaren how his future for the next two years will look. He's signed a new contract but will not drive in 2017, his seat will instead go to Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, but he could return to racing in 2018:
It means Button will help with car development for next season whilst Vandoorne, the best prospect amongst the young drivers without a current ride, will stay with McLaren having been linked with a seat away from the team.
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The option remains for the former Williams driver to return to a seat should Vandoorne not work out, as Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen did in previous years or Alosno chose not to carry on
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Formula One
