McLaren drivers annouced: Alonso and Button

[Doc Austin]

LOL, Taz!

I just read this ...... Button: “I am also very glad that Kevin will remain part of the team. He is a very quick driver and a really nice guy.”

And............. In a statement released on the McLaren website on Thursday morning...... Kevin Magnussen will remain an important part of the team, as test and reserve driver."

[Mark]

Some journalists saying they've heard that both Alonso and Button are on multi year contracts.

Maybe that's why it took so long, perhaps Button was holding out for a 2 year contract? If that's conditional on performance who can say.

[rjbetty]

Wow I honestly didn´t expect to see Jenson still around! I find this great news too! This reminds me of when Fisi stayed on in F1 after I thought he was a goner. If the Honda is any good, I think 2nd in the constructors in 2015 could be on.

Sad for K-Mag though. Taking a year out didn't do Nico Hulkenberg that much harm though.

[Doc Austin]

I think any performance issues will rest with McLaren or Honda. This is a really good pairing.

[anfield5]

Glad and sad.

Glad that Button is still racing, unlike some posters here I actually rate him quite highly. Sure he is not a 'Super-star" but he is a star driver and deserves to make his own career end in F1.

Sad because Mag deserves a race seat. McLaren are keeping him as 3rd driver which is good. Remeber this is how Alonso and Massa both started i.e raced a season, were just testing in season two, then back with a bang. The problem for Mag is that McLaren possibly wont be looking at him as a racer in 2016. Some rumours abound about JB having a multi-year deal, and the spectre of Stoffel vanDoorne being groomed in GP2 for one more seaon, before replacing JB in the McLaren team must be haunting Kevin.

[N. Jones]

I am really happy to see this happening! I think Jensen will not have the contentious relationship Alonso had with Hamilton. Also, I wonder if Fernando has grown a bit and is looking more for a partnership than a A/B situation.

[truefan72]

I believe I called this a few weeks ago
perhaps mclaren listened to me

lol

[kfzmeister]

What great news. I'm so stoked for the coming few seasons. Great articles about 2007 and Dennis admitting what went wrong. Finally. It needed to be said. People have talked too negatively about ALO for too long.
ALO-Ron-McLaren already in talks over the last 18 months.
Would love to have seen the faces of the VET lovers that thought Ferrari brought him in to save them, and ALO got axed. I'm on cloud 9.
I've said for them to give him a competitive car (doesn't need to be the fastest). Hopefully Macca can do it.

[Storm]

Wow
Attachment 429

This is for those people who said that Alonso had burned his bridges and no way was he going to McL (with the 100m penalty etc) and I remember posting that in F1 nothing is forever

[henners88]

This is for those people who said that Alonso had burned his bridges and no way was he going to McL (with the 100m penalty etc) and I remember posting that in F1 nothing is forever

I was one of those people a few years ago but I am glad I was proven wrong. It became apparent after 2012 that a return to McLaren for Alonso would not be completely absurd. He put a brave face on for too long and you could tell from history that he could not possibly have been happy with the ongoing Ferrari performance. McLaren is the team he famously said in 2006 that he most wanted to drive for in F1. The team he admired as a child because of Senna and Prost. I hope this time it works out and they get their act together and give him the car he deserves. I want to see an Alonso vs Hamilton title challenge again in future!!