SAO PAULO — Formula One champ Jenson Button hopes to negotiate a deal that will allow him to stay with Brawn GP as the team aims to repeat its constructors’ title in 2010.
Button finished fifth in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix to clinch the drivers’ title and help Brawn take the constructors’ championship with one race to spare.
“I haven’t decided anything yet,” Button said after Sunday’s race. “I want to be here next year and I want to be with a team that can challenge for victories like this season and I think Brawn can do that.”
Button was part of the Honda team that folded its F1 operations last year before being taken over by Brawn GP just before the start of the season. He took a pay cut, kept his job, and after months of uncertainty eventually took advantage of the Brawn GP car’s dominance to build a huge lead in the first half of the season.
He won six of the first seven races of the season and then was consistent enough the rest of the year to maintain a comfortable lead coming into Brazil.
“These guys are not one-hit wonders,” Button said. “We have some sensationally talented people in our team. We are in great position. We have worked on this year’s car as much as we possibly could but we have also worked on next year’s car. This isn’t it for Brawn GP, for sure.”
Button said that now that the title race is behind him, he can start negotiating with the team about a new contract.
“I haven’t talked to the team seriously about next year as we wanted to get this out of the way,” he said. “I will sit down and discuss it when I have (gotten) over my hangover in the morning.”
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