Jenson Button is not going to jump ship despite Honda’s disastrous start to the 2007 season.
That is the insistence of the 27-year-old’s manager, Richard Goddard, amid numerous voices urging the Briton to give up after his nearly five years with the team delivered only a single grand prix win.
Brackley based Honda’s turbulent fortunes culminated this year with the dreadful RA107; flawed aerodynamically and easily the least competitive of the manufacturer-backed cars.
But Goddard said of Button: “We’re not shopping around and I’m not talking to anyone at the moment.
“There is no other team that can give us a better place to be,” he told the British print magazine Autosport.
Button signed a multi-year contract with Honda after the famous contractual tussles with Williams in 2004 and 2005.
He argued at the time that F1 drivers, with limited careers, must be “selfish”; a sentiment backed by friend David Coulthard who said Button should be “ruthless” in finding a winning home in pitlane.
1996 world champion Damon Hill agreed earlier this year that there is a “bit missing” at Honda.
Even Button’s manager admits concern about the technical direction at Honda, including the departure last year of Geoff Willis; a situation that could begin to be rectified this summer, when some new appointments are expected to be announced by Nick Fry.
Goddard said: “A number of key technical personnel left last year and we have to make sure the team rebuilds in that area.
“We can’t afford to keep starting the season with a slow car.”
