Why Button would be a great fit for Williams

Formula 1's silly season is in full swing, dropping hints, spinning rumours, sowing seeds of speculation, doubt and confusion wherever it can.

Contractual uncertainty at Mercedes and Ferrari allows everyone to pontificate as to who may be better at being Nico Rosberg or Kimi Raikkonen next year than, well, Nico Rosberg or Kimi Raikkonen.

Toto Wolff says Rosberg and Mercedes aren't 'flirting with anyone else' in F1, and barring a nuclear implosion it's difficult to see the status quo altering in Brackley/Brixworth/Stuttgart, given Rosberg plays so well with Mercedes' corporate bosses, and would turn his back on F1's best car by leaving.

Some pundits reckon Rosberg's only chance of beating Lewis Hamilton is not to be his team-mate, but that's a defeatist attitude, and I don't have Rosberg down as a quitter. In any case he feels he'll be at Mercedes for many more years.

The situation at Ferrari is less clear, but as Alain Prost pointed out last week, retaining the underperforming Kimi Raikkonen makes a lot of sense in terms of team harmony, for what remains F1's most conservative team when it comes to picking drivers.

Force India podium-getter Sergio Perez has been linked again with the Maranello team he says almost signed him from Sauber in 2012 (he wasn't prepared to wait until 2014 to move up so went to McLaren instead), but at the moment it seems more likely he'll remain at Force India for a fourth season.

Prost also reportedly told the Spanish press that Carlos Sainz Jr would be worth a look for Ferrari. Certainly he seems to be flourishing at Toro Rosso since the Max Verstappen freight train displaced Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull, but Sainz's paymasters have now exercised their option on him.

So with little prospect of movement at the very front of the grid, attention shifts a little further down, where British stalwarts Williams and McLaren also find themselves at the centre of transfer speculation.

McLaren-Honda's conundrum is well known. It has three drivers on its books. Well, for 2017 technically it has two - Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. Incumbent race driver Jenson Button is out of contract after 2016, so uncertainty abounds.

Does McLaren stick with Button for an eighth season? Heading into the first season of a new rules package that would make a lot of sense. Experience is important when developing new cars, and so long as Button can keep pushing Alonso hard on track there's no obvious reason to drop him.

Keeping Button would also allow McLaren some insurance should Alonso decide he's had enough of F1 when his current deal expires at the end of next season.

But McLaren also wants to ensure it keeps hold of Vandoorne, who is hot property in F1 after his dominant GP2 title campaign of 2015, and picked up a point on his McLaren debut earlier this year filling in for Alonso in Bahrain.

The ideal would surely be to loan him - Pascal Wehrlein/Mercedes style - to another team for a spell, allowing him to learn the intricacies of F1 under less pressure. But loaning Vandoorne seems to have been ruled out at present, so McLaren looks likely to have to choose between Button and the Belgian.

From Button's point of view you would think remaining at McLaren - if possible - would make the most sense for him. Why go through all the growing pains of the Honda project without a chance to see real results?

That's the cold, rational argument, but it doesn't take account of feelings and emotions. Button may decide he's had enough of McLaren anyway. Indecision (on both sides) about his future there has abounded since 2014, before Button has eventually agreed terms with Ron Dennis and co each time. Perhaps he will feel the time is now right to walk away regardless.

But what next for Button in that scenario? World Endurance? World Rallycross? Maybe, one day, but it seems for now he'd like to see how new-look, fat-tyred, V6 F1 on steroids turns out in 2017.

"I am happy with the direction it is going," he told Autosport during the recent European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan. "It is just whether I am going to be racing or not, and whether I think it is worth staying for.

"When I retire from Formula 1 I will definitely race in another series, whether it is Le Mans, rallycross, maybe other things.

"If I am racing in Formula 1, the reasons will be because I feel I am in a competitive car, I can challenge for podiums and maybe even for something better.

"With the amount of work I have put in over the last couple of years, I need that much of an improvement to feel like I want to stay.

"We will see if that is possible, but we still have a lot of time for me to just keep enjoying my racing and see which direction it takes me."

In a scenario where Button and McLaren part ways and Button decides he wants to remain in F1 next year, Williams surely represents his best option.

Discounting the particular case of Red Bull's rollercoaster relationship with Renault, Williams is clearly the best customer team in F1 - has been consistently since 2014 - and there is clear desire within the senior management at Grove to take the squad to the next level.

Pat Symonds and Rob Smedley are trying hard to reinstall a winner's mentality to a team that spent too long in the doldrums, urging it to aim higher, to be in it to win it again.

The minor example of Williams's pitstop improvement shows this can be done. Williams was regularly criticised for poor stops in 2014, when it blew chances to win the odd race on days Mercedes was off form.

Now Williams has the fastest crew on the grid, consistently. This proves it can be the best at something in F1. Smedley's logic will be 'this should apply to all areas'.

Including perhaps the driver line-up. Williams seems likely to shake things up in this department too, after three seasons of stability.

Signing Felipe Massa from Ferrari was a marriage of convenience for both parties. After 2013 Massa needed a decent team in which to rebuild his battered reputation; Williams needed a driver with top-team experience to help initiate its rebuilding process.

Massa is out of contract for 2017, and supposedly touting his services around the paddock. Perhaps that marriage has finally run its course?

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas is not immune, but his contractual situation is more complicated following his almost-but-not-quite move to Ferrari last summer.

Were either driver to leave, Button would be the perfect fit for a team of Williams's burgeoning ambition - a quality operator with that champion's mentality Symonds and Smedley are so keen to cultivate, plus significant British commercial appeal too.

Apart from the sentimental aspect of returning to the team that gave Button his F1 break in 2000, going to Grove could be mutually beneficial.

Button may find new ways to flourish in a fresh environment (it worked for Massa after all) and Williams can arguably guarantee 'challenging for podiums' right now, where McLaren cannot.

Signing a world champion would also issue a serious statement of intent to the world that Williams means business, as it seeks to take the next step in its nascent renaissance.