Team still expected to name Alonso alongside either Button or Magnussen; New interim car will run in next week’s test
Monday 24 November 2014 14:21, UK
McLaren will not confirm the identity of their 2015 driver line-up until after the current season.
The long-awaited announcement had been expected before this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi GP.
Instead, the Woking-based outfit have revealed they will only disclose their 2015 line-up after December 1st.
'Selecting the optimal driver line-up for a Formula 1 team is clearly an important process, and it is therefore one that requires precise and prolonged analysis,' a McLaren statement read.
'That being the case, and in order to avoid distracting the race team from its primary objective during the final Grand Prix weekend of the season, which is to secure the best possible on-track results, we have decided to defer our final deliberations relating to our 2015 driver line-up until a date no earlier than Monday December 1st.'
Despite the unexpected postponement, the team are still expected to announce that Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, seven years after leaving the team, will return to Woking in order to spearhead their reunion with Honda.
Quite where the delay leaves Jenson Button is an altogether different matter. Kevin Magnussen, a cheaper and younger option for 2015, remains the favourite to be retained alongside Alonso, and Button may well be racing for the final time in F1 this weekend when he makes his 266th race start on Sunday.
Conversely, McLaren's unforeseen adjournment until after Abu Dhabi - and the subsequent two-day test at the Yas Marina Circuit - could be interpreted as an encouraging sign for the veteran Englishman's prospects of a sixth season at McLaren given that re-hiring Magnussen is the more straightforward and less complicated choice.
Button's candidature certainly has considerable merit. The 34-year-old has scored nearly twice as many points as Magnussen this term and plenty of paddock observers believe that, with integrating the new Honda power unit such a complicated task, the McLaren-Honda partnership would be better served with two experienced drivers behind the wheel of the MP4-30H. At the age of 22, Magnussen, who could be offered a seat further down the grid, still has plenty of time on his side.
Amid fevered speculation that Alonso was on the brink of signing a two-year deal that would be the biggest in the history of F1, a frustrated Button sounded resigned to his fate two weeks ago at Interlagos. However, it's understood that his management team was reassured on race day that a definitive decision on the composition of McLaren's 2015 line-up had still not been taken.
Nevertheless, despite the renewed hope that Button will be spared the axe, his supporters are likely to be dismayed at the idea that the Englishman might leave F1 without being given the opportunity of a proper farewell this weekend.
The 2015 driver market has itself become an interminable saga since the summer, with Ferrari still yet to formally confirm Sebastian Vettel will be a Scuderia driver next year despite almost two months elapsing since Red Bull announced the German had exercised an opt-clause in his contract to leave the team.
Meanwhile, having run the new Honda V6 engine for the first time on Friday at Silverstone, McLaren have confirmed that an interim version of the MP4-29H will run in next week's test at Abu Dhabi while a radical upgrade package is set to debut in practice this week.
'We have spent the past nine months comprehensively recruiting and restructuring within our design and engineering departments; over the next few days we will be evaluating and trialling a range of aerodynamic upgrades for the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and for the 2015 Formula 1 season; furthermore, we are now only a few days away from formally commencing our exciting technical partnership with Honda, and, subject to satisfactory final bench-testing, it is currently our intention to run our interim development car, the McLaren MP4-29H/1X1, on the test days that will follow the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,' the statement added.
