Reports this morning are suggesting that the oft-talked about buyout of the Brawn GP Formula One team by Mercedes Benz could well be announced later on today, with a deal having been signed at the end of last week.
The much-predicted deal would see Mercedes agree to end their current contract with McLaren, which has been in place since 1996, at the end of the current contract cycle in 2011, and take a controlling stake of the new champion team in Brackley instead.
McLaren will remain a Mercedes customer until the end of the 2012 season, whereafter it is believed the team will look to break free of all manufacturer links and build their own F1 engines.
The announcement from Brawn and Mercedes should lead to the conclusion of the driver saga between the teams, with champion Jenson Button predicted to move to McLaren to partner Lewis Hamilton, while former Williams man Nico Rosberg and former BMW driver Nick Heidfeld would be announced as the Brawn-Mercedes pairing for 2010.
However, there are still reports that the whole Button-to-McLaren rumour is not a possibility, and that Button and Rosberg will form the Brawn team's line-up next year, with McLaren left to choose between Kimi Raikkonen and Heidfeld.
Despite there being no conclusion to the current contract issue between Button and Brawn, Ross Brawn offered the Brit greater flexibility with his own personal sponsors for 2010 in an effort to appease him financially.
Former F1 commentary annoyance James Allen broke the news of the link-up announcement on his personal blog, leading to the site going down this morning as half the internet piled in to have a read.
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