Giancarlo Minardi: Button to take a year out, Kimi to McLaren

Come 2015, McLaren is going to need a true number one driver on the team. Button is not a number one driver unless a team is being fielded with two, number two drivers.

As far as availability goes, will any names of value be free then?

Kimi in a McLaren powered by Honda is too good to be true.

To cap it off they should punt Perez and bring back Senna into F1.


Ahh the golden age......

HONDA

POWAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited by halifaxf1fan, 03 June 2013 - 22:12.

Quite frankly I don't think Räikkönen fancies taking a year to keep a seat warm for Button.

Last weeks MWM had some interesting thoughts about Honda's return possibly pushing Button out. No mention of Kimi though.

Lotus money Qs would be plenty of reason for Raikkonen to look elsewhere, but Honda will want another Sato figure so Kimi seems unlikely to fit THAT one. Would Macca dump Mexican money and take Kimi back plus ?Kamui? in the second car.....?

Next week on As Bernie's World Turns:

Jenson did an interview with either BBC or Sky quite recently about the McLaren Honda deal and I got the funniest feeling watching his body language and listening to him talking that it was as if he didn't expect to be around at the team when the Honda engines arrive. It was odd. Don't ask me to justify it because I can't. Just a gut feeling I got. As if he was struggling to get excited about the future because he isn't sure of the future. Maybe he's considering a crack at triathlon professionally?

I'm sure there was an interview with Button last weekend, and he was asked about having a job for life at Mclaren and he dismissed it, and acted rather strange? or am I imagining things?

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Jenson, when the Honda deal was announced, it naturally raised the question as to whether you might still be around in 2015, but Jonathan Neale (McLaren managing director) said you have a job for life. Can I ask how that makes you feel first of all, and secondly, when he says for life, how many more years do you think you might have left as a racing driver?

JBu: Did he say a job for life or a job as a racing driver for life?

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Job for life.

JBu: Ah, OK. I don't know what that means then. I don't know. I don't want to think about the future too much at the moment. I think that yeah, you've got to live for the moment and I don't think that trying to agree a lengthy deal for the future is something that is interesting at the moment for me. I'm 13 years in the sport, I want to have freedom and that feeling that if it doesn't feel right any more: stop. But I definitely don't feel that yet. It feels that it is going to be a long way down the road. For me, that freedom is important in the future.

Last weeks MWM had some interesting thoughts about Honda's return possibly pushing Button out. No mention of Kimi though.

Lotus money Qs would be plenty of reason for Raikkonen to look elsewhere, but Honda will want another Sato figure so Kimi seems unlikely to fit THAT one. Would Macca dump Mexican money and take Kimi back plus ?Kamui? in the second car.....?

Next week on As Bernie's World Turns:

Managing director Jonathan Neale said: "Who knows who will be in the car in 2015. I've been laughing with Jenson about it."
"But Jenson will drive here as long as he wants to. He's a great guy who is doing a really good job in difficult times at the moment.
"He fits our values and our culture really well. It's a question of hoping he will still be here in 2015.
"But right now he is excited by the prospect of Honda as well."

Edited by WitnessX, 04 June 2013 - 08:51.

Kamui is not McLaren material whatever

If they want drivers to test with Honda they have an armada of good test drivers to do it. Besides which most of the work (if not all) will be done in the simulator.

No way Honda would dictate McLaren's driver choice. And there's no top japan driver anyway - Kamui is not McLaren material whatever.

I am not sure if it's the interview you're thinking of but the question was put to him during the drivers' press conference before Monaco:
http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/99782



Doesn't seem that enthusiastic, no, but then again the press conferences are generally awkward and stilted things all round and why commit to anything publicly before needing to?

Edited by Radion, 04 June 2013 - 11:58.

I got that feeling too...I would be extremely surprised to see JB in a McLaren Honda and nor do I really want to see him in one either. Both these organisations have made a mess of giving him the equipment he deserves.

Personally I hope his lack of enthusiasm in this interview is a sign that he is talking to other teams. There are a few options for him. Webber is leaving RedBull. Grosjean is unlikely to have another season at Lotus and who knows what Kimi will do. Merc is probably out and I really hope he doesn't go to Ferrari.

I am not at all saying it will be Kamui, but I believe you will be proven wrong on Honda dictating drivers.

Why on earth would Honda have such priviledge which Mercedes didn't have even owning 40% of the team and there were much more candidates to pop in? Yes, maybe they will have some say in choosing drivers but no way they will 2nd tier japanese in a McLaren.

Just food for thought, before Honda pulled out, they were going to give Bruno Senna a seat for 2009.

Honda is looking to get something out of all of this, and from a marketing standpoint, a Senna in a McLaren-Honda isn't a bad way to go. Is it likely? No, because I see Honda wanting a not necessarily a Japanese driver in one of the seats (like they did with Nakajima in 1987 at Lotus) but a top tier driver. McLaren is in desperate need of one in my opinion, and Button isn't a plan for the future. I think Perez was an effort to try and look to the future, but the jury is still out on him.

I got that feeling too...I would be extremely surprised to see JB in a McLaren Honda and nor do I really want to see him in one either. Both these organisations have made a mess of giving him the equipment he deserves.

Personally I hope his lack of enthusiasm in this interview is a sign that he is talking to other teams. There are a few options for him. Webber is leaving RedBull. Grosjean is unlikely to have another season at Lotus and who knows what Kimi will do. Merc is probably out and I really hope he doesn't go to Ferrari.

I certainly took it as Jenson talking to other teams rather than Jenson going into retirement, or even taking a sabbatical.

I imagine that Jenson must be very fed up at the moment. People were saying that this could have been his year, instead McLaren produced a flawed car and then topped that with flawed reliability and race operations. It seems to me that 50% of his races so far have been adversely affected: Malaysia (wheel not fitted), Bahrain (bad strategy) and Monaco (fuel pump).

If McLaren don't sort themselves out, why should Jenson stay there and waste his remaining years?

Even playing second fiddle to Alonso at Ferrari would be better than the repeated disappointments at McLaren.

Predicting the future in F1 is futile. Sure, there are worrying signs for McLaren's near future. Yet I still hope Jenson stays put, as I don't think a move to another strong team is realistic. It's not a great situation for Jenson but at the same time he's not in a position to demand too much.

Predicting the future in F1 is futile. Sure, there are worrying signs for McLaren's near future. Yet I still hope Jenson stays put, as I don't think a move to another strong team is realistic. It's not a great situation for Jenson but at the same time he's not in a position to demand too much.

dont know about the interview, but who would answer to question about 2015 with calm and confidence?
Think about this way for example;
- Sebastian/Mark, it is confirmed that Red Bull Audi from 2015. Are you excited about driving Audi engine?
- Kimi, Ford to be new engine for lotus from 2015. what is your prospect?
etc etc
it's not about next race, but 2015. Everyone knows everything is fickle in F1 and seriously any driver would be odd to answer such question.

Predicting the future in F1 is futile. Sure, there are worrying signs for McLaren's near future. Yet I still hope Jenson stays put, as I don't think a move to another strong team is realistic. It's not a great situation for Jenson but at the same time he's not in a position to demand too much.

Yeah, I think Massa, Button and Webber are all in the same boat in that they're good drivers and driving for top teams, but apart from their current employment where they've found a niche, I just don't see other top teams going out of their way to offer them contracts. They're reaching the end of their careers and the options are: stay put, go to a mid-field team or retire.

Both these organisations have made a mess of giving him the equipment he deserves.

It depends very much on how the engineering re-structure at McLaren works, since Paddy Lowe has gone there is going to be less of a "designed by committee" approach with Tim Goss fully in charge (I never could understand the set-up with those two). I get the impression every time Whitmarsh talks about the MP4-28, and where it went wrong, that Lowes name crops up in one way or another, coincidence?

And yet, all these teams need very solid second drivers for the WCC. When Massa's seat was under threat last year, what were the options? There were, IMO, no really safe bets once Jenson and Mark could not be tempted. Of the three, I think Jenson has the best chance to move elsewhere, but he has something to lose too. He would not want to be embarassed by Alonso or Vettel, having emerged unscathed from the Hamilton partnership (and with the cache of being a WDC intact). Retirement now, or soon, could let him leave as a recent regular GP winner, and no knockout blows to his credibility.

If Jenson thought this way, he would never have joined Lewis at McLaren.

Edited by Radion, 05 June 2013 - 08:23.

Do we really think Kimi would return to all the sponsor commitments he would be put through at McLaren?

I think it was China, not Japan where Kimi was treated like a popstar...

Edited by Sonic2k, 05 June 2013 - 08:39.

Yes, he has many fans in china but also in japan. Correct me if I am wrong.

@jrg19
you mean sponsor commitments like that?

Do we really think Kimi would return to all the sponsor commitments he would be put through at McLaren?