FEBRUARY 4, 2002

Rumors begin as F1 engineers play musical chairs

YESTERDAY we hinted that there was about to be a reshuffle amongst some of the top engineers in F1 and rumors have already begun that Egbahl Hamidy is about to depart Jordan Grand Prix and may be replaced by Renault F1's Pat Symonds. Symonds was technical director of Benetton between November 1996 and the arrival of Mike Gascoyne in the autumn of 2000 but has since shuffled sideways.

The theory is that Egbahl Hamidy is not happy with the situation at Jordan and may depart, leaving the door open for a new recruit at Jordan.

There is also speculations that the technical team at Jaguar may be changed in the months ahead. Technical director Steve Nichols has been with the team a little more than a year but the new Jaguar R3 is not going well in testing and the Jaguar management may be looking for scapegoats.

As we suggested yesterday, Arrows technical director Mike Coughlan is due for a new contract and he may be on the shopping list for a number of teams.