Brawn: 99% comment was a misquote
Brackley, Saturday: Ross Brawn has told journalists that previous reports that he was “99% sure” Jenson Button would remain at his Brawn GP team for next season was not correct, and that he had been misquoted by the journalist who he had originally spoken to.
Misquoted: Team principal Ross Brawn
Brawn was widely quoted earlier this week as being confident that Button would stay at the team, although the two parties have been deadlocked in recent weeks over the matter of the new world champion’s salary.
“Unfortunately my words have been taken entirely out of context,” Brawn said in a hastily arranged news conference today. “I have no idea whether Jenson will stay or go. He’s refusing to speak to us after we told him to stop adding zeroes onto all the numbers in his contract.
“When I said I was 99% sure Button would stay, I was talking about this button on my jacket,” Brawn said, showing his coat to the assembled journalists. “It was only hanging on by a single thread, and I was a bit worried it would fall off before I could get home and ask the wife to sew it back on again.”
Reports suggest that Brawn did indeed get home with the errant button intact, and it has since been secured to its rightful place.
Brawn refused to comment on reports that Button had been seen touring McLaren’s Woking factory, fuelling speculation that the champion could make a switch to that team for 2010. “That’s Jenson, of course,” Brawn helpfully added. “I can say with reasonable certainty that this button isn’t going to McLaren. Unless the bastards try to steal it and photocopy it again.”
