Good news I reckon. I reckon that Hamilton will probably be quicker but equally I think that Button will push him in a way that Kovalainen didn't and get the best from him.

Shame to see Kimi out of a drive though. Hopefully he'll be back with Red Bull or another good team in 2011.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80197

In my opinion Button's greed has got the better of him again.

Nah, don't reckon and in fact, his behaviour over the years (including paying off contracts to get in what he thought was the right car though you may question his judgement on that…) points completely against someone for whom money is the motivation.

Same here – I don't really blame him for leaving Brawn/Mercedes if he felt that they were saying 'we'll keep you but only for a much smaller salary than is reasonable (given his WC status and all that brings in sponsorship alone) because we're not really all that bothered'.

My guess is that his logic was along the lines that McLaren actually wanted him and it seems unlikely that McLaren are going to be a bad bet long term for providing a decent car.

I do think that McLaren will be more competitive at the start of the season next year based on the dip of form on the Brawn's but I dont think you can write off any team that has Brawn as technical lead. Either way he is still getting no where near what Kimi is going to get to go Rallying

And if you believe some reports, he's actually on less/the same at mclaren than he'd been offered to stay on a Brawn.

I reckon McLaren will be back on fire next year, and this is a smart move.

& will his smooth driving style be good with the change of regs?

I imagine that McLaren still have a greater depth of engineering capability, Brawn were operating on a (relative) shoestring of staff & money & it will take a while for any new investment to come through

I guess that a smooth style will be helpful for driving with full tanks without trashing tyres too quickly.

By all accounts Brawn stopped developping their car 2009 car and focussed on 2010 when they reckoned they had enough of a lead in the points table. Looks like they got it bang on.

I think it's a smart move, Mercedes just didn't want him and I can't see the new Merc car being as good form the off – in fact, I predict it'll be like an '08 BMW season for them to begin with at best, I can see a Mclaren 1-2 in Bahrain easily enough. Ferrari, who knows! Red Bull, for me the real big unknown!

If Mclaren are back on form, Button certainly isn't going to beat Hammy in any other car so he might as well have a go in the same car. And, of all the teams that come and go, there's ultimately 2 cars to be in long term, and his fluke season with Brawn (I think he deserved it but that season was the exception IMO) has bought him a ticket to one of the big two cars to be in, which he might not have ever otherwise achieved.

Very smart move, he might never win again but he has a chance at Mclaren. Also, better to be British in an all British team, playing second fiddle to a fellow champion, than to be British in a soon to be very German team playing second fiddle to a young cocky yet to have been.

Is Lewis going to be happy driving the No.2 car. Surely Jenson will be wearing the No.1 on his as he is WC.

I'm sure Lewis will get over it 🙂 (Yes, JB will definitely have the number 1 as WC)

I just feel sorry for all those people who will be getting Brawn baseball caps for Christmas!!! 😉

I know! I thought of that too 🙂 They'll probably become collectors items eventually…

And I bet Brawn are crossing their fingers that Rosberg is as good as he's made/makes out to be, as they could end up with a pair of very average drivers if they sign Heidfeld as well.

I think Rosberg is good but like with a lot of good drivers, you only really find out just how good when put in a good car with the consistent pressure to deliver at every race. I think he'll turn out to be on a Button sort of level but not quite up to Alonso/Hamilton/Raikkonen (when he can be bothered).

Kimi will go to rally, Kimi Vs Loeb will be an awesome battle.

I wonder what odds you'd get for Schumacher to win the world championship in a Mercedes Car ran by his old mate Brawn.! You read it here first Schumacher joins Mercedes.

inbred, I didnt read it here first. Other people, why wont brawn be quick next year, they stopped developing 2009's car after Turkeys GP and started on the 2010 1 before the other teams, I think it will be Ferrari, Red B, Merc and Maclaren, but it will be awesome to have 4 Teams at the front.

Mercedes looked to be building a strong German team so it could be that the new team may have been luke warm to keeping him so he saw a good opportunity and jumped, good luck to him. Will be interesting to see the driver team dynamics at Maclaren.

According to Eddie Jordan he was told by Mercedes that he wasn't welcome at the new set up and was advised to seek employment elsewhere. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that he is on the same team as Hamilton. They like very different traits in their cars and I'm sure that Hamilton will have the most say on how the cars should handle which would be detrimental to Button's chance next season.

A lot also depends on who his engineer will be, will he take the one he had this year with him. The race is a combination of car, driver and the relationship the driver has with his engineer. If the driver cant relay to the engineer what the car feels like both are unable to work towards improvements.

Other people, why wont brawn be quick next year, they stopped developing 2009's car after Turkeys GP and started on the 2010 1 before the other teams

It's only pure speculation, but claims they were starting early on the 2010 car could have been a cover story for no money to develop the car throughout the season.

As Mclaren have stated also, this years aero is relevant to next year which is why they pursued fixing that dog of a car instead of writing off the season. I don't think the new Merc will necessarily be slow, I just fully expect the Mclaren to be devastating!

My prediction is a 4 way title battle with Hammy, Button, Vettel and Webber.

Interestingly, if Ferrari manage to pull a decent set of wheels out of the bag, there'll be three teams on the grid (McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull) each tooled up with two drivers who are both in with a genuine punt at the championship – should make for some fun…