Honda to retain F1 driver line-up in 2009.

Honda looks likely to keep both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in its Formula 1 line-up in 2009 - that was the assertion of the Brackley-based concern's team principal Ross Brawn ahead of the German Grand Prix this weekend.

The big-budget Japanese outfit has endured a trying first half to the 2008 campaign in the top flight - Barrichello's inspired, strategy-aided Silverstone podium aside -performing barely any better than it did in 2007, when it notched up a scant six points all season-long.

That compares to a staggering 86 points a year earlier still, when Button - who has previously finished third at Hockenheim, in Honda's former BAR days back in 2005 - had registered his maiden grand prix victory for the squad in Hungary.

Though there has been speculation linking disaffected Renault former double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso with the team for 2009, Brawn - who joined Honda this year from Ferrari, where he had helped to mastermind five of Michael Schumacher's seven world championship triumphs - has moved to stress that he is 'not looking at anything major on the driver side' and, when asked if both Button and Barrichello would still be there next year, replied simply, 'yes'.

"Our priority is clearly to sort the car out," the Englishman is quoted as having said by the BBC, "because we believe with the drivers we have, if we produce a good car then they can produce from their side.

"The car is not as competitive as we obviously want, but I see a lot of reasons to be optimistic with the team. I have seen the team move forward a long way."

The 53-year-old is optimistic that with the sweeping changes to the sport's regulations next year - including, most prominently, substantial aerodynamic alterations and the introduction of the new Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) - all teams will be on a far more level playing field, thereby giving Honda chance to shine once more.

Button - who has been tipped by legendary F1 commentator Murray Walker as a potential world champion in the right car [see separate story - click here] - has remained steadfastly committed and loyal to Honda throughout all the frustrations, whilst it has been suggested that Barrichello, the most experienced driver in the history of the uppermost echelon, may hang up his helmet at the end of the current campaign - an idea the Brazilian insists he is unwilling to countenance.