Great news. I really hope they give JB and FA a decent car that they can challenge with, it should make for a superb season. Chuffed for Jenson

“Jenson, Fernando is faster than you”

More interesting to see how JB fares against Captain Haddock.

Since he’s so useless and Fernandoo is the best on the grid.

Looking forwards to that

Me too

If FA can consistently put 2/10ths on JB, I’ll give him the nod, both of them are great at ‘bringing the car home’ so there shouldn’t be much in it from that side of things.

Captain Haddock?

Alonso

Why?

Beard

“Jenson, Fernando is faster than you, give up 8th place to him”

FTFY

sounds like Ron wanted one thing (KM) and everyone else wanted the other (JB), and probably HONDA wanted him too.

shove it Ron, you should resign now then!

I find Alonso’s move a little confusing, for sure he could have done 1 more year at Ferrari and been in a much better negotiating position with Mercedes when their contracts are up, or RBR or even Williams….

moving to a new engine thats never been in the back of that mclaren is a huge risk at his career “age”

i suspect he has a number of get out clauses for his first year there.

The problem with Alonso at Ferrari was that when they succeeded it was always because of Alonso heroics, when they failed it was because Ferrari failed. Never the other way round.

Given what he has achieved v his supposed talent, he will never be considered a true great of the sport. Also, given his standing any team taking him on will be doing it on the basis that all the success will be attributed to Alonso and not to the team.

Given what he has achieved v his supposed talent, he will never be considered a true great of the sport.

Don’t agree with that. He’s already being talked about as a great and he’s still got a little while to go yet.

Interesting thing I read today was that apparently RD did indeed promise FA priority at McL in 2007, hence FA’s annoyance was justified to some extent.

More interesting to see how JB fares against Captain Haddock.

Since he’s so useless and Fernandoo is the best on the grid.

Looking forwards to that

I think Alonso will have the edge over the season but he’s not going to wipe the floor with Button. I get the impression Alonso rates him than a lot of people outside the paddock do.

I reckon 2015 will be Button’s last year unless McLaren tell him pretty early in the season they want to keep him.

It’s official official now – JB and FA at McL with KM as third driver – mclaren have confirmed it on twitter.

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/team/mclaren-honda-announces-fernando-alonso-and-jenson-button-for-2015/

FA still has his beard which RD is reputed to hate 🙂

I’m no FA fan, but he’s a real racer and has been a F1 World Champion, I do wonder about his fit within McLaren and Jenson, but we’ll have to wait and see, we maybe pleasantly surprised.

So long as the car is half decent and heading in the right direction, I reckon things will be fine. Should that not be the case though…

If I was him I’d keep it for that reason alone.

Once really disliked him, but I don’t know if he’s changed or it’s just me – at first I respected him a lot, but I now think I actually quite like him. I wonder if we’ll see more wheel to wheel battles between him and JB now – they have been one of my highlights of this season, and given the way they both behave I can’t see any reason at all why the team would want to stop them.

I don’t think there is any great surprise if FA really did have a preference for JB – not because he thinks he can beat him, but because he won’t do something unpredictable and stupid (not that I’m saying KM would, but you can rely on JB not doing so). That and his clear value in developing a new package. They do also genuinely appear to get on well.

see how they took the pic, in front of the cars that actually won something, prob. with HONDA in the back,
note JB far away from RD 🙂

KM with gritted teeth in the middle, trying hard to smile.

Kev’s in a great spot. 3rd and reserve + waiting to step back up in 2016

Not a bad result all round.

see how they took the pic, in front of the cars that actually won something, prob. with HONDA in the back,

I seem to recall they’ve also won a lot of races and 3 drivers titles with Mercedes engines in the back! So not a bad stint.

Jenson gets to keep his courtesy P1 for another year 🙂

If you look a the pic of the wokshops on here, there is an access panel set to the right of the central groutline. I used to have it as my screen saver but it does my head in.

I think there are enough totes disgustaballs slobs in the world. A few more like RD would be fine by me.

Specialized-McLaren Venge Road Bike Collaboration – Ultra Hot Sub 950g Aero Road Frame

You could have just photoshopped it out, surely…

Besides, it’s a drain, isn’t it? 😉

Kev’s in a great spot. 3rd and reserve + waiting to step back up in 2016

Not a bad result all round.

^^This^^

I reckon 2015 is probably JB’s last year in F1.
FA will be hoping that an established, experience but slightly demob happy JB helps iron the kinks out of the car and the team for him…

And McL actually have a bit of a “Drivers Roadmap”: KM getting a race seat in 2016, after a year of testing and being in reserve, FA won’t be feeling too threatened, but the team should get two seasons of stability and managed transition…

I think everyone comes out of it with a silver lining really…

I’m not so sure FA will beat Button. Everyone was expecting Hamilton to do so and Button scored more points than Hamilton.
Button and Hamilton did remind me a wee bit of Prost and Senna, one clearly the faster ‘natural talent’ for want of a better phrase but the other able to keep up and sometimes beat him by using his brain more. I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar happen next year.

Reckon FA has a good brain as well as the driving talent though. Although I still think if Button is in a top car set up 100% to his liking he can beat anyone.

Love that group photo. All in suits. Management with ties, free spirit drivers no ties. But still buttoned up suits.

andrewh – Member
I’m not so sure FA will beat Button.

Nor me.

If I were forced at gunpoint to put my all £12.50 of my life’s savings one way or the other, I’d go Alonso, but it is a very marginal call. IMHO, there have been too many races where Button has managed variables exceptionally well to discount him.

I think they’re both extremely clever drivers, though clever in different ways. Both are also good at dispatching overtakes with disdainful ease. I;d love to see them work together, pool their knowledge and cunning.

I also hope KM does not have to wait too long to get back into a driving seat. Good result all round though.

Even if Honda produce a stonker of an engine power unit, McLaren manage not to make a completely rubbish car to put it in (stranger things have happened) and JB does as many are predicting and has the better of FA? I suppose it would be one way to go out…

Interesting reading the press release where FA has Senna as his hero, whilst JB is more admiring of Prost. Though that could just be the roles assigned to them and not their own words.

I’m not so sure FA will beat Button. Everyone was expecting Hamilton to do so and Button scored more points than Hamilton.

oh my god, pick a stat just to support your own argument, see below and after digesting it tell me that Button was a better driver than Hamilton!

Qualifying
Faster qualifying time: Hamilton 44 / Button 14
Poles: Hamilton 9 / Button 1
Front rows: Hamilton: 23 / Button 9
Races
Wins: Hamilton 10 / Button 8
Podiums: Hamilton 22 / Button 25
Points finishes: Hamilton 45 / Button 47
DNFs: Hamilton 13 / Button 8
Best race result (inc DNFs): Hamilton 32 / Button 26
Ahead in two-car finish: Hamilton 24 / Button 13
Championship
Overall points: Hamilton 657 / Button 672
Seasons finished higher in standings: Hamilton 2 / Button 1
Highest championship placing: Hamilton 4th (2010, 2012) / Button 2nd (2011)

So everyone is sort of happy now. Button has his drive and the chance to impress another team for 2016.

What I thought was interesting is he is on 50% of the money. Oh to be a fly on the wall for the Hamilton negotiations.

I’m not so sure FA will beat Button. Everyone was expecting Hamilton to do so and Button scored more points than Hamilton.

Only if you add all three seasons points together, which is really manipulating the numbers to get the answer you want.
JB scored more points than LH in 2011, LH scored the most in 2010 and 2012.

I don’t however think FA will easily beat JB, but beat him, he probably will I’m afraid. It may well come down to reliability in 2015 with a new power unit so we may never find out for sure.

I reckon 2015 is probably JB’s last year in F1.

I’ll have to correct you, and myself apparently.

JB has signed a ‘multi-year’ contract. Which was possibly one of the stumbling blocks.

Good lad!

multi year contracts mean nothing, the team always have the option to drop/keep.

Button: good guy
Hamilton: w@nk

Very happy about this! Lewis Hamilton won by a landslide. I thought it would be closer! Well deserved 🙂

Button comes across as a thoroughly nice guy. An alrounder to have in a team whereas Kimi comes across as half the package.

Lewis is on his way to joining the greats. Would you bet against him in 2015? Hes firmly got his self-belief back. Remember when Merc told him to move over for Nico? He could have gone back into his dark place then. No, he flourished. His raw talent has definitely matured.

The only remaining chink in his armour was him being popular back home. Apart from the odd article saying ‘do we love Lewis’? You don’t hear much (yes the flags etc at races but what about the wider public?).

This vote says he IS popular. Nico though? 😆 8)

His raw talent has definitely matured.

Completely agree, that’s what I witnessed this season too.

Red Bull robbery: 20 stolen trophies found in a lake