The peculiar status of Jenson Button, a world champion without a confirmed contract with a Brawn GP team he helped to save from oblivion, led to suggestions yesterday that he could end up as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate at McLaren Mercedes next year.

This seems a long shot. Why would Button, whose career has been plagued by wrong decisions on teams, want to go anywhere near McLaren when they are so focused on “Project Hamilton”? While Button’s supporters rate him as highly as the 2008 champion, others fear Britain’s latest king of Formula One would struggle against the McLaren “No 1”.

According to reports yesterday it is McLaren and their sponsor, Vodafone, who have let this horse out of its stable. But Norbert Haug, the director of motor sport at Mercedes-Benz, was having none of it.

“There are no current negotiations with Jenson Button but I do understand that people in England are dreaming of an English team with two world champions in the cockpits,” Haug said. “However, dreams don’t always come true.”

Button’s camp were as bemused by the rumours as they are at Brawn’s reluctance to do a deal with their man. Richard Goddard, Button’s manager, was adamant the story had not come from him.

The most likely “function” of this particular rumour is that it is McLaren’s way of reminding their real target for next season, Kimi Raikkonen, that there are other drivers available and that not all of them cost the many millions of pounds the Finn is hoping McLaren will pay him on top of the money he is due from Ferrari, where his contract had a year to run. Thus Button is possibly being used to encourage Raikkonen to sign on the dotted line.

The smart money remains on Button staying at Brawn next year and driving alongside a new team-mate in Nico Rosberg. Why Brawn are dragging out the negotiations with the new world champion remains a mystery. The delay in talking terms with Button, who is seeking to return to the £8 million salary he was on before he took a voluntary £5 million pay cut to help the team last winter, has led to rumours that the team are short of funds for next season.

The Button camp, however, remains optimistic. “I am sure they will make an offer and I am sure they will do it before too long,” Goddard said last night.