Button threatens to quit F1 over team orders

Jenson Button is all about 'me' not about 'we'

McLaren

Jenson Button will fight to keep his world championship hopes alive this weekend on what may turn out to be his last appearance at Monza’s cathedral of speed.

For the world champion, preparing for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, is giving serious consideration to retiring from Formula One if team orders are legalized.

Button has rarely, if ever, spoken as fervently as here. The paddock was buzzing with the FIA’s contradictory ruling that although Ferrari broke the rules in shuffling their drivers around so that Fernando Alonso could win in Germany seven weeks ago they should escape with a meaningless £65,000 fine.

‘I am against team orders,’ said Button, aware that the sport will review the banning order in November. ‘If they are allowed I would not be very happy at all. I’d be very disappointed. I would consider retiring. It would definitely shorten my career.

‘If you are not capable of winning a world championship and your team-mate is and he’s trying to overtake you, you’re not going to make it any more difficult, but you’ve still got to be allowed to fight for the championship.

'If you’re not racing to win, what’s the point? Unless they are here for other reasons than I am. I am here because I want to win.’

Button, 30, is the most senior figure in the sport to speak out against manipulated results. Others, including Bernie Ecclestone, want team orders to be legalized because they see Formula One first and foremost as a team sport.

The drivers, according to Ecclestone's rationale, are employees and should do as they are told. That is Ferrari’s view, too. It is not that of Button’s McLaren team.

As boss Martin Whitmarsh explained: ‘I’ve often said to drivers you want to look at yourself in the mirror knowing that you’ve won the championship; not that it was gifted to you. That’s how we run our team.’ Daily Mail