McLaren have announced that Jenson Button has retained his seat and will partner Fernando Alonso in the 2015 Formula 1 season.

Towards the end of this year's campaign, widespread reports suggested that the 34-year-old would leave the sport, with Kevin Magnussen likely to be preferred due to his youth.

However, the Woking-based constructors delayed their decision to announce their driver lineup and, after much deliberation, opted to keep hold of the 2009 world champion.

"I am extremely excited to be embarking on my 16th year in Formula 1 and my sixth season for McLaren," said Button.

"Like Fernando, I am certain that McLaren and Honda will achieve great things together, and I feel sure that, working together, all of us will pull incredibly hard to create a brilliantly effective winning team.

"Being a part of new-look McLaren-Honda is a wonderful opportunity for all of us, and I am very pleased to have been invited to do my bit. In fact, I am absolutely raring to go."

Chairman and chief executive Ron Dennis added: "We signed Fernando a little while ago, but we decided not to announce the fact until we had also re-signed Jenson as his teammate.

"For many reasons our negotiations with Jenson took quite a long time, but, now that they have been concluded, we are confident that our collaboration with him will continue to thrive in the future every bit as well as it has in the past. Make no mistake about it, Jenson is 100% committed to McLaren-Honda, to Formula 1, and to winning."

Magnussen will remain with the team as a reserve and test driver.