Button says Brawn should write F1 rules

Jenson Button

Jenson Button believes F1 needs someone outside the sport to take control of its future rule making and believes former team boss Ross Brawn would be the ideal candidate for the job.

As a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, Button was one of the signatories of a recent open letter from F1 drivers urging for change in the leadership and direction of the sport. The letter did not offer an answer to F1's issues, but speaking to ESPN independently of the GPDA, Button believes there is a need to remove the teams from the rule-making process and employ an expert capable of giving the sport a new direction.

"You are never going to get all of the teams to agree on a regulation, never, but the problem is at the moment is that you need every team to agree," he said. "At the moment it's very tricky and the FIA said that possibly they should have complete control over the regulations which is maybe the case, maybe.

"My team [McLaren] won't like me talking as I'm talking, but sometimes it needs to be someone outside of the sport. As long as they have the right direction and they have an understanding of the sport and help from experts in certain areas of the sport and the car and aerodynamically, and what have you, maybe the decisions have got to be made from someone else who is not involved with the sport."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has previously proposed Brawn as a candidate for such a role based on his experience in senior roles at Mercedes, Brawn GP, Honda, Ferrari and Benetton. Button won his 2009 title with Brawn's team and says his former boss would be an ideal candidate if he can be tempted out of retirement.

"Yeah Ross would be great. I think Ross would be fantastic, I think everyone believes in Ross and what he has achieved. As long as he had interest to do it, but I'm not sure that he would, he's enjoying his fishing I'm sure."

Button says the drivers are not politically motivated in their calls for change, but are simply trying to make the sport more exciting for fans.

"As drivers we don't want to change the world, we are just very emotional about what we do and we love our sport. Especially the older guys, we were around when we got out of the car and we felt dizzy because it was so physical. It was how big your balls were in high speed corners and how strong your neck was and now it's a very different situation.

"Technically the cars are more advanced and that takes a lot of brain power but there are a lot of other things that you miss. I think our opinions are valid, you are never going to change the rules on the drivers' comments I guess, I completely understand that because we are very emotional about our comments and the business side of thing is not our area, but as drivers we want to help as much as we can to put this sport in a good place so that we love it and the fans love it, because without fans the sport doesn't exist." Espn.co.uk