Brawn Will Keep Button Until January 1st

Jenson Button

Jenson Button may have signed a multi-year contract with McLaren Mercedes F1 Team, but he will not be allowed to move to Woking during the calendar year of 2009. At least that's what Brawn GP's CEO Nick Fry told the Autosport magazine earlier today, hinting that contractual obligations will be enforced in order to prevent Button from commencing work with McLaren in 2009.

“Jenson will not be doing anything at all for McLaren until the end of this calendar year. And if he does, we will be looking on it very dimly. (...) There are clear constraints on what Jenson can do between now and the end of the year, which we will be rigorously enforcing,” Fry told the Autosport website on Thursday.

Therefore, it seems a perfectly good relationship has once again ended with bad feelings in the world of Formula One. Fry's announcement comes only hours away from Ross Brawn's declaration in which he states his disappointment over the Button-McLaren move. In addition, Fry himself argued that time will tell whether the move was uninspired or not.

However, the contractual obligations that Brawn GP are ready to enforce on Button are no news in the series, as two drivers being in the same situation as the reigning world champion are also obliged to stay away from their future teams until January 1st.

Nico Rosberg recently ended all his business with Williams F1 Team, yet he was announced by Frank Williams that he will only be free to leave the Grove headquarters at the end of the calendar year. At the same time, Fernando Alonso terminated his contract with Renault F1 Team and signed a 3-year deal with Ferrari, yet he'll only be allowed to resume F1 action at Maranello only after the New Year's Eve.

Button's missing out on this year's action at Woking is unlikely to affect his preparations for the 2010 campaign though, as none of the testing on the MP4-25 will happen this year (or at least the McLaren team didn't make such an announcement just yet).