Ferrari: Button rumours are ‘twaddle’

Editor

Ferrari have dispelled rumours that Jenson Button will be joining the team next season after reports in the British press linked him with a move to Maranello…

Ferrari have dispelled rumours that Jenson Button will be joining the team next season after reports in the British press linked him with a move to Maranello.

The News of the World reported on Monday that a source inside Ferrari had revealed that the Italian team had already enquired about Button’s availability after they realised that “they need a stronger partner for Fernando Alonso than Felipe Massa if they want to win the title again.”

However, in the anonymous ‘Horse Whisperer’ column on the Ferrari website the team refuted such suggestions, condemning them as simply being part of the ‘silly season’.

Button is of course not the first man to have been linked with a position with Ferrari; already this year Nico Rosberg and Sergio Perez have been touted as possible replacements for Felipe Massa even though the Brazilian has not been released by the team.

“Recent weeks have provided a particularly happy hunting ground on various fronts. Engineer gossip has been enlivened by the news of the restructuring of the Scuderia’s technical department, giving rise to a wave of suggestions and a list of candidates good enough to make an employment agency go green with envy,” the column stated.

“But of course, it’s still the drivers that attract the most attention. And as usual, Felipe Massa is at the centre of it all.

“The Brazilian is now well used to this ritual, as it began almost before he set foot in the Scuderia. Each year he is due to be replaced, even if the season is only two races old, yet year after year, he is still holding down his job.

“The list of candidates scheduled to replace Felipe is by now a long one, but 2011 has seen some new names appear in the charts. First there was Nico Rosberg and now we can add that of Jenson Button. It goes without saying that, yet again, this is just a load of twaddle, to use a polite word for what I really mean to say,” the column concluded.

Related links:
‘McLaren & Ferrari want Button’