Brawn’s counter offer to Button…

With Champions Brawn GP and Jenson Button still yet to come to a deal ahead of their season of title defense in 2010, Team Principal Ross Brawn has suggested that the Brackley outfit may offer its driver 'more freedom' for sponsorship deals as opposed to the pay rise the Frome man seeks.

With Button, who took a pay cut of £5m to £3m for this season – making him the lowest-paid Champion of the decade – now believed to be searching for a salary of £6m or higher for next season, it seems that the team may not agree in this area but instead suggest that the Englishman can have the right to recruit his own personal sponsors.
"We can offer a higher proportion of driver freedom and that will probably be the route we will go," Brawn told The Guardian on Wednesday. "Jenson (currently) has some freedom for his own endorsements but has a commitment to meet our obligations."

With 2009 team-mate Rubens Barrichello already signed up with Williams for next year, the likelihood is that Germany's Nico Rosberg may effectively swap with the Paulista to become Button's team-mate for the upcoming campaign. GPUdate.net