Button to stay in Formula One through 2016

McLaren says Jenson Button will remain at the team for the 2016 Formula One season. The 35-year-old Briton said he was confident the team would overcome its "current difficulties" to achieve great successes in the future.

"That gives me great confidence, and it is for that reason that, together, (team principal Ron Dennis) and I have decided to continue our partnership," he said.

The 2009 drivers' champion already had a contract through 2016, but there had been clauses that enabled either party to end it a year early. The team's struggles this season with new engine provider Honda had heightened speculation Button would depart, and Button himself even said he "was at one point in two minds" about his future.

His faith in Ron Dennis and Honda to improve performance before next season proved decisive though. Dennis said conversations between the two indicated Button was "as enthusiastic and as committed and as focused as ever" so the options to end the contract "became an irrelevance."

Teammate Fernando Alonso is also expected to stay with McLaren for 2016.

jh/pfd (Reuters, AP)