Formula 1's Latest Rumours & Talk: Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean to Haas, More

The end, it seems, is nigh for Jenson Button.

After a Formula One career of 16 seasons, featuring 15 grand prix wins and as many triumphs as disappointments, the 2009 world champion seems set to walk away from the only thing he has ever known having reportedly decided to quit the sport at the end of 2015.

And the news of his retirement could be confirmed in time for this weekend's grand prix in Japan, his second home.

The Japanese GP weekend could also be an important event for Romain Grosjean, who is increasingly likely to join the new Haas outfit for 2016.

The Frenchman has been at Team Enstone since 2008, racing in the colours of Renault and Lotus, but Grosjean is ready to flee the nest to kickstart his career.

Grosjean's departure will be a major blow to Renault at a time the French manufacturer is hoping to re-emerge as a major force in F1, with no standout contenders to partner Pastor Maldonado—whose stay at the team for 2016 was confirmed in the aftermath of the Singapore Grand Prix

The Marina Bay race was one to forget for Mercedes, whose form deserted them at the street circuit.

But team boss Toto Wolff, confident that their pace will return at Suzuka, has stressed the need for the team to remain calm and composed ahead of the final six races of the season.

With the reaction to Max Verstappen's reluctance to play the team game and Manor Marussia's assessment of Alexander Rossi's F1 bow, here's this week's roundup.

Jenson Button to Announce Retirement from F1 at Japanese GP?

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Jenson Button is increasingly likely to retire from Formula One at the end of 2015, and an announcement could be made ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

For the second season in succession, Button has found himself fighting for his future, and after being forced to wait until mid-December to learn of his retention by McLaren last year, the British driver has taken the decision into his own hands this time.

According to the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson, the 2009 world champion's desire "to bow out on his terms" will see Button leave F1 at the end of a season in which he has scored just six points in the first 13 races due to McLaren's struggles with their new Honda power unit.

Button "is expected" to switch to the World Endurance Championship, the retirement home for former grand prix drivers such as Mark Webber, for 2016 and will combine his driving duties "with a media career."

Johnson claims that Button's affection for Japan—the birthplace of his wife, Honda's home event and the scene of one of his finest victories in 2011—will inspire him to reveal the news of his retirement ahead of what he views as his "second home race."

Before the Singapore GP, Button told Autosport's Ian Parkes how he is "in a good place" and would prefer to leave F1 entirely rather than continue his career at a rival team.

Button has performed admirably alongside two-time world champion Fernando Alonso this season, with the Spaniard recently telling Autosport's Lawrence Barretto and Parkes that keeping the 2009 title winner would be "a good thing" for McLaren, who are without a victory since Button's 2012 Brazilian GP success.

While losing Button would be yet another blow for McLaren, it would allow them to focus on the future and promote one of their homegrown talents.

Kevin Magnussen, the last McLaren driver to stand on a grand prix podium, could be in line to return to a race seat after being replaced by Alonso at the end of 2014, while Stoffel Vandoorne, the GP2 championship leader, will also be in contention to succeed Button.

Pastor Maldonado to Stay at Lotus for 2016, but Romain Grosjean Set to Join Haas

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Soon after the conclusion of the Singapore Grand Prix, Lotus confirmed that Pastor Maldonado will remain at the team for a third season in 2016. 

But the Venezuelan is increasingly likely to have a new team-mate next season, with Romain Grosjean set to join the new Haas outfit.

Grosjean's future has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks, with Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble reporting at the Italian GP that the Frenchman—unsure whether Renault's proposed takeover of Lotus would be completed—had held discussions with Haas, who will arrive on the grid next year.

The general consensus was that Grosjean viewed Haas as a fallback option to cement a place on the 2016 grid even if Lotus were overwhelmed by their recent financial problems.

Yet the American team—whose team owner, Gene Haas, told USA Today's Jeff Gluck of his eagerness to sign a current F1 driver—appear to have persuaded the 10-time podium finisher to take a gamble on a brand-new operation.

In Thursday's FIA press conference at Singapore, Grosjean explained how he had made a decision on his future but refused to reveal further details over his plans. According to F1i's Chris Medland, however, a "senior source close to Grosjean" has confirmed the driver is indeed on his way to Haas.

Renault Sport boss Cyril Abiteboul, meanwhile, bemoaned the French manufacturer's failure to secure Grosjean's stay at the team during their talks with Lotus, per Canal+ show The Grid (h/t F1i). 

And although Noble, in a separate Motorsport.com article, claims Grosjean "has not yet signed" a deal with Haas, "sources suggest his mind is clear" and he will join Haas "whatever the developments on the Renault side."

In August, Grosjean told Sky Sports' Mike Wise how he held discussions with Ferrari with a view to replacing Kimi Raikkonen for 2016.

The Prancing Horse ultimately decided to retain the 2007 world champion, but it seems Grosjean's switch to Haas—who have a technical partnership with the Scuderia—will make Grosjean the overwhelming favourite to partner Sebastian Vettel when Raikkonen eventually departs Ferrari.

Grosjean's decision to leave the Enstone-based team, whom he first joined as a test driver in 2008, will come as a surprise after he previously told ESPN F1's Laurence Edmondson of his excitement over the prospect of leading a Renault factory operation.

The Frenchman's seemingly imminent departure will be humiliating for Renault, leaving the manufacturer short of options in a relatively stable driver market ahead of its grand return to the grid in 2016.

Former Toro Rosso drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Sebastien Buemi, who competes in Formula E for Renault, and current Lotus reserve Jolyon Palmer could all be in contention to partner Maldonado in what would be an underwhelming driver lineup.

Toto Wolff Urges Mercedes to Remain Calm After Singapore GP Defeat

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Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff has encouraged his colleagues to keep calm and carry on after the team's anonymous performance in the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Marina Bay race was, by some margin, Mercedes' least convincing performance since emerging as Formula One's dominant force at the beginning of 2014, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lacking pace throughout the weekend.

A fortnight after Hamilton claimed his seventh win of the season with ease at the Italian GP, Mercedes slumped to third in the competitive order in Singapore as Ferrari and Red Bull Racing claimed the top-four positions in qualifying.

Despite claiming 11 pole positions in the first 12 races of 2015, Hamilton's quickest time in Q3, per Crash.net, was 1.415 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel's benchmark lap.

And the team were unable to challenge Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo on pure pace in racing conditions, with Rosberg finishing a distant fourth and Hamilton suffering his first retirement of the season after a loss of power.

With just seven days between Singapore and the Japanese GP, leaving the team with little time to analyse their lack of pace, the alarm bells may start ringing at Mercedes.

But Wolff is confident their lacklustre performance was a result of the team's inability to get to grips with the supersoft tyres at Marina Bay and has backed his troops to bounce back at Suzuka, where the medium and hard-compound Pirellis will be in use. He told Autosport's Ian Parkes:

"

We need to stay calm.

I'm always on the pessimistic side, but I don't believe we've lost car performance from one weekend to the other in a dramatic way like we did, and equally I don't believe someone found a second and a half from one race to the other.

It's the tyre. We spoke to the drivers and the degradation was just massive, which is unexplainable for us.

So it's about analysing it. We believe it to be a circuit specific problem with the tyres where we didn't manage to get the grip.

It's a very specific circuit, very specific in terms of the way the tyre operates compared to many other circuits.

This is how you explain these gaps, and we'll have to prove that in Suzuka.

"

Hamilton's 49-point advantage over Vettel in the drivers' standings, and the team's 153-point gap to Ferrari in the constructors' table, means Mercedes should not be concerned over their championship prospects.

But the team should be increasingly worried about the reliability of their W06 cars, following Rosberg and Hamilton's engine-related problems in Italy and Singapore respectively.

While the team will almost certainly win both titles this season, Mercedes' decision to fast-track their 2016-spec engine may yet decide which of their two drivers becomes world champion in 2015.

Toro Rosso Boss Defends Max Verstappen After Team Orders Squabble

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Perhaps the most controversial moment of the Singapore Grand Prix came in the latter stages when the Toro Rosso pit wall, according to the FIA television feed, ordered Max Verstappen to hand eighth place to team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr.

Although the rookies had worked together to force their way through the field—overtaking Romain Grosjean in quick succession, for instance—Verstappen, who was a lap down at one stage after stalling on the grid, refused to follow the instruction as the Toro Rossos tracked the seventh-placed Force India of Sergio Perez.

The 17-year-old's disobedience led to a team-orders row, with Sainz later telling Sky Sports' Mike Wise how he believes he is a "fair man" and would have played "the team card" in a similar style to how Red Bull enforced "friendly" team orders in the closing laps of May's Monaco GP.

But Franz Tost, the Toro Rosso team principal, insists Verstappen was right to ignore the pit wall's request as Sainz, despite having fresher tyres fitted to his car, was unable to catch his team-mate.

Tost told Autosport's Ian Parkes:

"

The team wanted to swap positions because we thought Carlos was faster with the new tyres, but this was not the case, he could not catch up.

He was too far away, so Max said no, and he was right.

I said over the intercom if Carlos is not close then it makes no sense to swap positions because he would never get Perez as he is too far behind.

Max was right because Carlos was simply too far away, between three and five tenths behind.

You have to catch up, and he [Sainz] should have shown at first he was capable of overtaking Max before then trying to catch Perez.

"

Verstappen explained his father, former grand prix driver Jos Verstappen, would have been outraged if he had gifted the position to Sainz, telling the same source: "He told me if I had let (Sainz) past he would have kicked me in the nuts!"

Manor Marussia Praise Alexander Rossi After Respectable F1 Debut

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Graeme Lowdon, the Manor Marussia sporting director, has praised new signing Alexander Rossi after the American finished 14th on his grand prix debut in Singapore.

Less than 48 hours ahead of the Marina Bay weekend, the team's official website announced Rossi would replace Roberto Merhi in five of the remaining seven races of the 2015 season, leaving the 23-year-old with limited time to prepare for his debut at one of the most demanding venues on the F1 calendar.

Despite hitting the crash barriers in the dying minutes of the first free-practice session and qualifying 0.502 seconds adrift of Will Stevens, per the official F1 website, Rossi finished ahead of his new team-mate in the race.

The American's result was all the more impressive given that he completed a large chunk of the grand prix without the guidance of the Manor pit wall after his pit-to-car radio failed.

And although Lowdon has rued Rossi's error in FP1, which cost him track time in FP2 and resulted in a grid penalty, he believes the Californian can be satisfied with his performance, telling Sky Sports' William Esler:

"

It was good.

It is a difficult sport to come into, it is not just about driving the car, but all the other factors that make Formula 1 what it is and he equipped himself really well.

Obviously he had a slip up in FP1, but he wouldn't be the first driver to have a slip then and he won't be the last one. And then in he drove a good race considering we lost communication to him ahead of the safety car.

These cars are incredibly complicated with a number of switch settings required to manage the power units alone is quite substantial so all of that had to be done old school via the pit-board.

But Alex is a guy who has come up through all the ranks and I'm sure he hasn't forgotten how to use a pit-board. He managed to race pretty well all things considered. Barring FP1 I think he will consider it a good job.

"

Rossi will remain in the cockpit for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix before Merhi returns to driving duties at the Russian GP.

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