The newspaper reports claim that Button had used clause in his contract which would allowed him to leave based on his view that he questioned Honda's long term commitment. Such a position brought statements of surprise from BAR boss Dave Richards. Richards maintains that he has a binding contract with Button.

Richards said to the Times newspaper: "To be treated like this is dumbfounding. We are all utterly shaken. I have got 400 people in this factory who have worked their socks off night and day and then the guy who gets all the credit and drinks the champagne turns around and ditches them.

"I cannot believe that Jenson wants to leave. There is a hidden agenda here somewhere and we are determined this is not going to happen. Somebody has been looking for a get-out clause because there is absolutely no doubt Honda are committed. Honda only announced they were renewing and extending their contract with us before the race in Germany, so why should there be a doubt?

"We believe we can make Jenson Button a World Champion and we, with Honda, have proved this year that we are going in the right direction and we thought we were all going together. Perhaps Jenson has been led in another direction - down the garden path. I can only hope that I can talk to him and make sense of what is going on."

The WilliamsF1 team responded with Sir Frank Williams stating on BBC radio that the deadline for the option to allow the BAR team to retain Button had expired.

Williams said: "[Button] has been under option to his present team BAR for some time. The option expired recently and Button's management called us to say that the option was no longer valid and would we be interested in his services, and of course I reacted as you might expect me to.

"I think [BAR] probably wanted to take up the option but whether they've executed or not will come out in due course."

As for why Button would want to leave what has been a successful relationship with BAR Williams could not answer that.

Williams added: "He started with us in 2000 and we've been in very close contact all of the time since. Maybe he just harboured a wish [to make a return] and recognised we had spent tens of millions of pounds reinvesting in the company technically speaking.

"Maybe he recognises we have a greater opportunity of providing him a World Championship car than his present team. I haven't asked him the real answer yet."