Over the weekend of the British Grand Prix conflicting stories emerged from broadcasters Sky Sports and the BBC.
In Britain both broadcasters cover Formula One, with Sky showing every race live whilst the BBC hold the rights to show half of the races live.
The British Grand Prix was one of the races shown live and as expected being the broadcasters home race had a strong presence at Silverstone.
The focus obviously was also on the British drivers with Lewis Hamilton, Will Stevens and Jenson Button all featured across the channels.
On Sky Sports an interview with McLaren chairman Ron Dennis appeared to strongly suggest that Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso would both remain in the cars for next season.
It has previously been confirmed that Alonso signed a binding three-year-deal with no get-out clauses following his move from Ferrari, whilst Dennis stated that Button holds a two-year-deal.
‘Jenson Button has a two-year contract with McLaren, We are not even thinking about drivers at the moment.’
Pretty clear you would think? But the BBC’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson begs to differ.
He insists that Button has no guarantees over 2016 McLaren seat and actually has a ‘one-plus-one contract’ meaning that McLaren hold an option to retain him for 2016.
Benson doesn’t go on to suggest that McLaren will opt against taking that option to retain Button, just points out that the decision is yet to be made.
It’s unsurprising that this could be the case considering how long Button’s protracted contract talks at the end of last season went on for.
22-year-old Kevin Magnussen is still waiting in the wings at McLaren after losing his seat for 2015, could he take the seat back for 2016?
Or 23-year-old Stoffel Vandoorne could be an option after he has blown away the competition in GP2 this season.
Both would probably prove cheaper options than Button, but wouldn’t hold the experience or perhaps the know-how to help improve the development of the car alongside Fernando Alonso.
Button’s future up in the air
