TheSportsCampus

Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button has decided that his future lies with the McLaren Mercedes team and not with his former team Brawn GP - recently re-branded Mercedes Grand Prix after the German car maker bought a majority stake in the team.

The announcement of the multi-year deal comes a day after Mercedes decided to sell its stake in the McLaren team and take over the championship winning Brawn Grand Prix. Mercedes will continue to supply engines to McLaren till at least 2015, though McLaren will pay for them like any other customer team.

McLaren's coup means that the two most recent world champions will both be racing for the team from Britain. The team will also retain the #1 on their car. Button will be partnered by 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton who will start his fourth season with McLaren next year.

In a press release issued by McLaren, Button says that his reasons for abandoning the team that gave him the world championship rested on finding new challenges for himself. "It's always a difficult decision to leave a team when you've been there for so long. But life is all about challenges - and, most important of all, it's about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I'll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges."

Explaining his motivations for choosing McLaren, Button says the team's long history of success in Formula 1 and the hunger for further success were motivating factors.

"When I visited the McLaren Technology Centre earlier this month, it wasn't simply the technical resources and the incredible standards of excellence that impressed me. No, I was equally struck by the ambition, the motivation and the winning spirit that flow through everybody there. And then there's the team's epic history: put it this way, the trophy cabinets seem to stretch for miles."

It has long been thought that Button's disagreement with Brawn was over the salary he expected as a world champion. Button took a pay cut last year when Honda pulled out, and expected Brawn to raise his salary. Brawn, on a tight budget, loath to do that. But, McLaren team principle Martin Whitmarsh insisted that money was not the motivating factor behind Button's decision.

"I want to make clear that Jenson's decision to join us was in no way motivated by money. We'll be paying him no more than he could be getting elsewhere, and that fact is a reflection of not only Jenson's belief in Vodafone McLaren Mercedes but also his desire and ambition to build on the phenomenal results he achieved during the 2009 season," said Whitmarsh.

Whitmarsh also said that a line-up containing Hamilton and Button, "will make us an even more complete and competitive operation" and hoped for greater success next year. If they build a decent car next year, that should not be too hard to achieve.

Button's countryman and now atleast officially the #2 driver in the team Lewis Hamilton was quick to welcome him. Hamilton said, "It's fantastic news that Jenson has decided to join Vodafone McLaren Mercedes - and I'm looking forward to working with him and our engineers to make sure we kick off the 2010 season with a car that's competitive enough to win the World Championship"