Formula One champion Button joins McLaren

TRACK CHANGE: British F1 racing champion Jenson Button to join new team.

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London: Jenson Button will partner Lewis Hamilton at McLaren next season in an All-British lineup of champions, the Formula One team said on Wednesday.

The announcement of the multi-year deal completes an astonishing year for 29-year-old Button, who did not know if he had a future in the sport last December when his then-employers Honda pulled out for financial reasons.

Button went on to win six of the first seven races of the season for Brawn GP, the team that emerged from the remains of Honda.

"It's always a difficult decision to leave a team when you've been there for so long. But life is all about challenges -- and, most important of all, it's about challenging yourself," Button said.

"So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP, and I'll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges.

"You can't help but be affected by this team's phenomenal history. McLaren is one of the greats of world sport, and its achievements and list of past champions read like a Who's Who of Formula One," he added.

The signing means Mercedes-powered McLaren will have two champion drivers for the first time since 1989 when France's Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna formed an explosive pairing at the Woking-based team.

It will also be the first time that a team has started the new season with a lineup featuring the most recent two successive world champions and the first pairing of British champions since Graham Hill joined Jim Clark at Lotus in 1968.

While Button will be well rewarded financially for his decision, with reports suggesting a pay packet of about six million pounds ($10.09 million) a year, he also faces the toughest challenge of his career.

Hamilton, 24, has been nurtured by McLaren for more than a decade and has made the team his own since bursting on to the scene as a sensational rookie in 2007.

"It's Lewis Hamilton's patch, it's his territory and he's made it his own. He knows everybody and knows where all the green buttons are to press," former McLaren driver turned television commentator Martin Brundle told the BBC.