Maintaining driver continuity is not our priority: Jonathan Neale

(From right) Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Jonathan Neale and Mark Webber

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale has said that the maintaining the driver continuity is not the priority for the team as they are heading for its new Honda era in 2015.

Both McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez have been unsigned for the next season which leaves option for the team to land someone new.

“What you really want is talent and high performance. We’ve shown in the past that we weren’t afraid to make the changes that we felt that we needed to in the team, whether it was inside the organization or in the driver line-up, in order to get the job done,” said Neale during a Vodafone teleconference.

“We’re really excited about the return of Honda and are working really hard behind the scenes to make that successful. But we’re also looking forward to what we hope will be a very competitive powertrain from Mercedes in 2014,” he added.

Meanwhile, Neale also admitted that the team is unlikely to change drivers for next season but said that the team will make the official announcement once things are clarified.

“We don’t comment on rumor mill or drivers until such time as we’re ready to make an announcement. I hope that it won’t be too much further now before we’re able to clarify what’s going on,” he said.