JENSON BUTTON had a guided tour of the McLaren Formula One factory on Friday. He spent two hours with senior management and met a senior engineer. It is not every day that you see a new world champion out of contract and being ushered around a former arch-rival's facilities.
Button and his manager, Richard Goddard, claim that finding a car capable of retaining the world drivers' championship is a higher priority than money. Often such meetings are clandestine affairs held at midnight, or at remote country house hotels or windy airfields, but McLaren's headquarters is an impressive sales tool, and both parties clearly wanted the visit to be public.
I thought Team Button were simply giving the Brawn negotiators a hurry-up, and that McLaren were