Fry says Button to be back in 2010, still some details to work out

Maybe good old Nick Fry is still a little “over-celebrated,” but he is saying that he is confident new world champion Jenson Button will be back with Brawn GP in 2010.

The BBC — which, not surprisingly, is covering the heck out of Button’s win — has the story.

“We’ve got to do a bit of negotiation but we want him to stay, and I know he wants to stay with the team,” said Fry.

“I wouldn’t like to say how far apart we are in money terms, but it’s a bridge that can be crossed.”

[snip]

Fry jokingly admitted that Button’s success would probably “make him more expensive” but he remains confident that the 29-year-old wishes to remain with the team.

“We’ve been together a long time, its six or seven years now,” said Fry. “We’ve been through the hard times together and now we’re successful.

“There are a number of people who have signed with the team, or are effectively competing with each other to be part of the team so I’ve no worries over that.”

As I noted to Grace this morning, Button’s price tag for “pool boy” duties has probably shot through the roof; she smartly — and perhaps a bit snarkily — countered that his driver price tag also was probably rising every moment.

Brawn does have one advantage in these negotiations, I think: Where else is Button going to go? That second seat at McLaren? To one of the new teams? To Toyota is they can’t land Kimi?

I fully expect Button to stick with Brawn, but I think it will be very interesting to see what salary he ends up with. We all know he took a huge pay cut — the BBC story says it was 5 million Pounds, dropping him to 3 million Pounds — but he’s entering negotiations when the economy is still hurting. I think it might be tough to get back that 5 million; at the same time, I don’t see how Brawn doesn’t offer it after his show of support in taking the cut in the first place coupled with his championship.

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