OCTOBER 13, 1997

His to Ford?

THE disintegration of the team of engineers at Renault Sport, following the defection of Bernard Dudot to Prost Grand Prix is expected to begin shortly and we hear that Dudot's head of research and development, the highly-rated Frenchman Jean-Jacques His, is to join the Ford F1 operation, working with Cosworth engineers at Northampton.

Fifty-year-old His has been with Renault since 1972, working in production engine research and development before he joined Renault Sport in 1984 to replace Jean-Pierre Boudy, who had quit Renault to join the new Peugeot Sport operation. His moved to Ferrari as manager of the competition engine department at Maranello when Renault pulled out of F1 at the end of 1985 but returned to Paris in mid-1988 after Dudot had been given the go-ahead to build the new V10 engine.

If the move is confirmed it will be a major catch for Ford - and will be a big boost for the Stewart-Ford operation.

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