Button Dismisses Paycut Suggestions

Jenson Button still does not know who he will be racing for in Formula One next season but he is not about to slash his pay to stay with Renault.

The Briton's two-year loan to Renault from Williams is up at the end of the season and there has been strong speculation that he will be replaced by the French team's Spanish test driver Fernando Alonso. But British newspapers suggested this week that Renault team boss Flavio Briatore wanted Button to take a 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) pay cut if he stayed in 2003.

"It's all speculation," Button told Reuters at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he was driving his Formula One car in a hill-climb run on Friday. "That's not one of the options so no, I wouldn't think about it," he said when asked whether he would accept lower wages. "I don't see any reason to, really."

"A lot of people don't know what's going on for next year or what my options are so we've just got to wait and see," added the English driver, still the youngest ever to score a point in Formula One history.

"I'm not thinking about any certain team for next season yet anyway so I've just got to think over the next few weeks what I want. It's not what teams are doing now, it's what they're going to be doing next year and the year after. There's a lot to think about.

"I think I will know what my options are in the next couple of weeks and then I can choose what I want hopefully."

Button has been linked particularly to Jaguar, with that team's boss Niki Lauda confirming before the last British Grand Prix that they had been talking to the Briton. Another option for Button is seen as Toyota, where compatriot Allan McNish has a one-year contract and has yet to be confirmed for 2003 alongside Finland's Mika Salo.