Sport - Racing : Motor

Barrichello, Button’s patience being tested

OMAYA (JAPAN): The end of the Formula One season looms and teams and drivers are rapidly putting in place their line-ups for 2009, except for Honda.

The uncertainty about who will race for the underachieving team next year is testing the patience of current drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.

“There is a lot of silence at Honda right now and I think this is tiresome,” veteran Barrichello said Friday. “I’ve never been in a situation like this, without a contract for next year this late in the season.

“I’ve made it clear that if someone offers me a good contract for the next three years, I’ll sign it,” the Brazilian said. “I see my future in an F-1 car, but if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world.”

Button is more likely than the Brazilian to be at Honda next season, but does not know if he will get a new contract.

Ferrari’s disastrous pit stop in Singapore looked to have put a temporary end to the use of a red-green light system to signal when cars can be released.

The premature switch to a green light caused Felipe Massa to trundle down pit-lane with the fuel rig and hose still attached, costing him the race. Ferrari has made the decision to revert to the old-fashioned ‘lollipop’ system in Japan, with a crew member raising the round sign on a pole from in front of the drivers’ eyes when they can leave.

However, Honda has elected to start trialling its own light system in Japan.

“We can see a lot of safety benefits from the system,” Honda team principal Ross Brawn told Autosport. “But like any system it has got to be very robust and you have got to be very confident in the technology you are using. It is quite a delicate situation. — AP

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