The staggering incompetence of Shuhei Nakamoto could result in the nightmare scenario of Buttongate Three.


Despite Jenson signing a deal with Honda until 2008, the possibility of the English driver once again attempting to extricate from a binding contract has been touted due to the team's wretched form this season.


Honda's decline can be traced back to the surprise appointment of Nakamoto last summer as their Technical Director following Geoff Willis' ousting despite his total absence of F1 experience. 'What he did have - and still has - is a firm friendship with Takeo Fukui, Honda's president and CEO,' F1 Racing Magazine discloses tellingly.


The magazine also quotes Honda engineers 'openly describing Nakamoto as "out of his depth."'


A consequence of his incompetence could be Button seeking to break his third contract in four years.


'A very heavily revised RA107 is due to make its debut at this year's Canadian GP. If it's a significant improvement on the current car, Button will surely remain fully committed to Honda's cause,' the magazine suggests. 'But if it's another disappointment, then the team will have no firm base on which to build their 2008 car - an alarming situation that would leave Jenson with no option but to look elsewhere.'


But where exactly? Button's previous reluctance to respect contracts has diminished his appeal with several team bosses understood to regard him as 'damaged goods'. Williams, for instance, certainly wouldn't consider rehiring him after he reneged on a deal to return to the team in 2005.


Ferrari and McLaren, meanwhile, have no available seats, leaving BMW as the only realistic alternative which could all-but guarantee a more competitive car than Honda. However, it remains to be seen whether BMW boss Mario Theissen would regard replacing either Nick Heidfeld or Robert Kubica with Button as worth the inevitable prolonged and expensive contractual hassle.

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There is no way that Button goes to Sauber-BMW !!!!
No german will ever buy a BMW car again, if they let Heidfeld go.
And the second seat is quite well occupied by Kubica and even if another driver gets his place, then it will definitely be Vettel !

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DTM 2nd Sept. -Nürburgring-

I reckon they should keep Heidfield, and replace Kubica with Button. Jensen is very fast...if you give him a fast car.

Honda have no chance of winning, even Button can probably see that. The problem is, like Toyota, are run by a car company, who has no idea about F1 or racing. They need to get a boss who's a true racer.

Or even someone like Flavio Britiore, who seems very good at running an F1 team.

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No way should they ditch Heidfeld, he is the most underated driver on the grid.

He should have been in a top team years ago.

Heidfeld is very good, his move around the outside of Alonso in Bahrain proves that he's a real racer, despite he's incredibly quite and conservative - some say boring. But Nick is never rude or grumpy, like Kimi.

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I like him more than Michael Schumacher! Schumi got kind of arrogant with his succes and records.
Heidfeld is quiet but cool

Go on Quick Nick !!!

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DTM 2nd Sept. -Nürburgring-

Yeah, I also like that. Give him a good car, and he's blindingly fast.
He's cool, I'm backing him.

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Button isnt going anywhere else. He's not a god, by any means. If he leaves Honda, none of the big teams with better cars are going to want him (lets face it, would you want a driver who jumps at the slightest hint things are going south!) and he'll either end up in a shit car or, more likely, in champ car.

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Steve Pearce - COME ON JIMMIE #48 D

I think your right, the only chance is if Robert Kubica stuffs up this season, leaving a seat at BMW empty...but BMW seem to love Sebestien Vettel, and I would be surprised if he doesn't get the seat.

Personally, Button doesn't really deserve the seat, yes he's fast, but not very good at making decisions (going into a long-term contract with Honda, and that Williams farce).

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bmw would be foolish to get rid of Heidfeld or Kubica and if they do want a brit in the car they'd be better off with priaulx rather than button.

imo his only chance of a different team would be toyota who always seem to take a punt on dmaged goods. cough *ralf*, cough *jarno*, cough *zonta* and so on.

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motorstv

ummm not sure

Andy Priaulx derserves the seat much more than Button. Andy's won three touring car championships for them, so they should re pay him with an F1 seat.

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LOL toyota having no idea about racing are you taking the piss ??

they have won almost every major racing league there is to win and they have the biggest budget in F1 so for a relatively new team to be even close to the front of the grid is good.

Well, in F1 their doing apallingly.

Toyota entered F1 in 2002, and it's now 2007. What progress have they made? Absolutely none, if they were a privateer, then I would understand, but Toyota have huge resources and billions of pounds, so scrapping for a couple of points isn't good enough.

Toyota are rubbish in F1. But maybe F1 just isn't for them? Jaguar never had any success in F1, but it really depends on which managment you have and which techincal people you have...

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Indeed, they have by far the biggest budget yet have delivered rubbish results in there 5 seasons in top flight motorsport.

Admittedly its not helped by hiring the most overrated drivers in the paddock (and spending upwards of $50 million a year on them!), but they really need to look at what they are doing. There incompetance isnt much worse than Honda's (though at least they've shown that they can compete on a semi-regular basis (though not this season!)

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Steve Pearce - COME ON JIMMIE #48 D

Excatly, everybody can clearly see how bad Toyota are doing. Foxychick defending Toyota in F1 is mad. Toyota aren't even close to the front-running pack, occasionally they might get a point, but that's not good enough.

Williams, who supply engines to Toyota, are doing much better, but have a much smaller budget.

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