Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 27 February 2009 /

In these chastening times Ralph Ellis finds reason for millionaire Formula One driver Jenson Button to be cheerful.

I suppose you can't blame Sir Fred Goodwin for holding on to every penny of his £693,000 a year pension. After all there's a credit crunch on and he no doubt needs it!

Life's tough at the moment for the rich and event the super rich, so it's good news to hear that Jenson Button won't need to head to his local Job Centre after all. In the current climate they might not have been able to find him work as a van driver. But no need for him to worry. The Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy reveals today that Honda have come up with a deal to save their Formula One team just ahead of the deadline for finding a new buyer.

The idea is a simple one. It would have cost the Japanese car giant around £100million to make the 700 staff at their Brackley factory redundant. So instead they are paying that amount over to the current team principal Ross Brawn for him to run the team another year and find more backing in the meantime. By 2010 the FIA's new cost cutting measures will be in place which should make the sport more affordable. The team will lose the Honda name as part of the deal and be named after the principal instead - although it sounds as if he's more brain than brawn.

It's great news for Button who was looking likely to see his career stuck on the starting grid - although it would seem near impossible for the team to be competitive. It's unlikely even that their car will make it to the first of the three remaining test sessions being held in Jerez on Sunday. And throw in the challenge that there will be no in-season testing allowed under new regulations and Button can look forward to a season at the back of the races.

That might be tough on the British driver, but when everything else in the world is being cut back it's good news for the sport that one of its major teams is not going to disappear altogether.

Button's team mate in the new outfit will be Rubens Barrichello rather than Bruno Senna who was widely expected to get the drive. And the engines will come from Mercedes.

There will still be job losses at Brackley, and cost cutting will be happening across the sport - which means it will be dominated all the more by Ferrari and McLaren when the market opens before the first race in Australia on March 29.

Five things you might not know about Jenson Button...

1. Born in Frome, Somerset in 1980 his dad John was a rallycross driver who now runs a Volkswagen dealership

2. His dad bought him a go-kart, and he won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart championship

3. He lives in Monte Carlo now and his hobbies include mountain biking and body boarding

4. His car collection includes a 1960 VW camper van

5. He can't cook - although he did once do a broccoli and stilton soup that his Mum liked. Just as well Honda survives so he can still afford to eat out!

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