AUGUST 31, 2001

Jaguar pulls back on appointments

THE ousting of Bobby Rahal has already had some effects on Jaguar racing with a number of recruitment plans being axed. Rahal had organized a deal to take on a high-ranking member of BAR to be Jaguar's chief operating officer. He had told BAR that he is leaving but now finds himself without a job as he has already been replaced by BAR. Jaguar will no doubt have to settle the contract signed.

We also hear that Jaguar made a bid for McLaren engineer Mark Williams but that this was also blocked by Jaguar's new boss Niki Lauda.

The word on the street in F1 is that the current technical director of Jaguar Steve Nichols may not last long and several teams are believed to be discussing hiring the team's chief aerodynamicist Mark Handford.

Lauda has his own ideas about who he needs and he is expected to announce the signing of Ferrari's Nigel Stepney to run Jaguar at some point shortly.

The problem with all of this is that Jaguar needs to find more money to pay for all the changes...