As the wait continues for McLaren to announce their 2015 line-up, we look at Button and Magnussen's respective cases for a new contract

There may be just three weeks until Christmas, but the wait continues for Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen to learn whether they will be retained by McLaren in 2015.

With Fernando Alonso having signed, although not yet officially confirmed, debate over which one of McLaren’s present pairing is more deserving of landing the other seat has been ongoing for weeks. A decision on the matter is expected at a McLaren board meeting on Thursday, so ahead of the eventual announcement, here’s five reasons why Button deserves to stay on and five reasons why it should be Magnussen.

Five reasons why Button should stay...

1. He has the experience

That’s 15 seasons and 266 races worth, to be precise. While the man set to occupy the other seat, Alonso, is well into the 'veteran' realm too, a team-mate pairing with a combined total of 500 starts would provide McLaren with a treasure chest of experience – and at just the right time.

Given McLaren are embarking on a new technical relationship with Honda, the feedback the drivers provide on the new hydrid power unit in the early winter tests and then through the season will be key to their progress. “Honda will know the value of having Jenson Button in the team,” said Ted Kravitz. “Not only because he’s a known face in Japan, somebody who they can relate to, but also because he can fast-track the development of their engine. He knows what’s important in a modern-day F1 engine and what they need to focus on to get the most out of it in the shortest amount of time.”

2. He delivers the points

Were McLaren to field an Alonso/Button line-up next season then not only would they have by far the most experienced team-mate pairing on the grid, they would also arguably have the most reliable. While neither is particularly famed for his single-lap pace – particularly now they are into their mid-30s – they excel on the all-important race days. Going on 2014 alone, Alonso scored 71 per cent of Ferrari’s points while Button contributed 70 per cent of McLaren’s. In fact, the Briton has outscored all his three team-mates across his five seasons at Woking, including Lewis Hamilton.

3. He knows Honda

If the success or otherwise of McLaren’s 2015 season is to rest on the performance of their all-new Honda unit, then what better man to have on board than someone who spent six years working alongside the Japanese manufacturer during their last F1 foray? Okay, the underwhelming nature of the BAR/Honda project, especially during the rather embarrassing 2007-2008 ‘Earth Dream’ years, didn’t go too well but it’s Button’s experience of the company’s specific working practices and culture which could prove particularly important.

Speaking earlier this year, Button said: "The things where a team could struggle with working with a Japanese manufacturer, if you didn't work on it, is Japanese language and culture, but I think McLaren understands that. I don't mean just the engineers or the aerodynamicists - the mechanics have to spend time understanding the Japanese culture and way of working as well.”

His past links with Honda, and the fact he has a Japanese fiancée in Jessica Michibata, also mean he is relatively well known in Japan. Or, to put that another way, rather more well-known than Kevin Magnussen.

4. He won’t ruffle Alonso’s feathers

Make no mistake about it, having signed what is reportedly the biggest contract in F1 history to make the once unthinkable return to Woking, Alonso is going to be McLaren’s main man for their second Honda era. The Spaniard’s startlingly swift divorce from the team in 2007 was in no small part due to the unexpectedly strong challenge posed to him by a then-rookie Lewis Hamilton. While Magnussen would have a year under his belt already were he to stay on, Sky F1’s Martin Brundle reckons Alonso would actually prefer a more tried and tested team-mate.

“Fernando had the experience of the new kid there last time he was at McLaren and l think he would rather have Jenson there," suggested Brundle. "He wants a known quantity and he doesn’t want a whippersnapper. He wants experience and he’ll be pretty convinced he can beat Jenson – and Jenson will be pretty convinced that ‘Hey, I took on Lewis Hamilton in that team and matched him, and I’ll do the same so bring it on Fernando’."

5. He isn’t actually that old

One argument for dropping Button is that he doesn't represent the future of the team given he turns 35 in January and, with the best will in the world, is closer to the end of the F1 line than the start. There’s nothing incorrect about such a viewpoint but, showing just how different perceptions of drivers can be, Alonso is only 18 months younger than Jenson and there have been plenty of suggestions that he could easily go on for another five years.

Five reasons why Magnussen should stay...

1. He will only get better

Snap judgements aren’t something exclusive to F1, but in the days of 24-hour news and social media it’s almost compulsory to deliver evolving verdicts on a driver on a race-by-race basis. Take the case of Kevin Magnussen: after finishing second in his maiden race in Australia – the best debut for a rookie in nearly 20 years – parallels were drawn between the young Dane and former McLaren protege Lewis Hamilton. Eight months on and his inconsistent form over the rest of the year has led many to ponder whether in fact he is a top-line F1 driver in the making after all.

But whether or not his career reaches the upper echelons of the sport, it’s unlikely that we’ve already seen the best Magnussen has to offer given he is just 22 years old. After all, who in any job – let alone one as multi-faceted as an F1 driver – peaks in their early 20s? Should he not make the 2015 cut, then McLaren may be left regretting that they never properly found out.

2. Dropping him wouldn’t reflect well on McLaren

Were McLaren to dispense with Magnussen after just a single season then it would be the second year in succession that the team have jettisoned a young developing driver on the back of one indifferent campaign. The top end of motorsport is hardly a sentimental business, but perhaps the key difference between the cases of Sergio Perez and Magnussen is that the Dane has been brought up through the McLaren development system since 2010. So should Magnussen expect some more paternal understanding?

“The difficult thing for McLaren is people will say ‘you’re not giving Kevin the time’,” said Kravitz. “What’s the point in putting Magnussen in the car for a difficult rookie learning year if you’re not then going to commit to him for the second year when he should flourish?’”

Should McLaren nonetheless decide that Button is the better bet, then the half-way house solution for McLaren might be to effectively keep Magnussen on ice for 12 months by moving him into a test-driver role. Such a move has worked to successful effect for the likes of Felipe Massa and Alonso himself in recent history, but back in those days testing was unlimited so both men were regularly clocking up the miles around various tracks. In 2015 there’s just 12 days of pre-season – which are invariably completed by the race drivers – and then just two two-day in-season tests.

The other question surrounding such a move would be what would McLaren then do in 12 months’ time? If they do see Magnussen as the future, wouldn’t it be better by getting that decision out of the way now?

3. He’s (significantly) cheaper

McLaren may be one of F1’s most well-funded teams but just like anywhere else on the grid, financial considerations come into play when deliberating any driver line-up. If reports in Spain are to be believed, then Alonso has already signed the biggest deal in the sport’s history to switch from Ferrari. Even if some new sponsors come on board to carry some of that financial burden, that’s a significant outlay on one driver, by any standards.

Unsurprisingly, Button, as a former world champion, is rather better remunerated than Magnussen, with the difference between the pair’s earnings reportedly around the £10m mark. Even if the Dane were to be given a rise, McLaren would undoubtedly made a significant saving by dropping Button and could, for instance, pour the additional funds into development of the MP4-30. If, as has been rumoured in recent days, Ron Dennis has recently been in Magnussen’s Danish homeland to seek out some potential sponsors then the financial balance could be further shifted in the youngster’s favour.

4. He won’t ruffle Alonso’s feathers

The same argument put forward in the case for Button can also apply to Magnussen, albeit for very different reasons. As the Dane would need to concentrate first and foremost on his own development in 2015 rather than immediately setting his sights on glory, Alonso would in theory comfortably assume the team-leader mantle which he has become accustomed to at Ferrari. But then again, that was also the theory in 2007…

5. McLaren would have a line-up for the now and the future

It’s often said that a blend of experience and youth is what a team really requires in a driver line-up. So were McLaren to pair Alonso together with Magnussen, they would have definitively ticked that box. Were Magnussen then not to deliver the goods in 2015, the team could simply slot their other promising youngster, Stoffel Vandoorne, seamlessly into his place without upsetting the balance.