FEBRUARY 1, 2007

Nigel Stepney and Ferrari

Nigel Stepney has not left Ferrari yet and the chances are that he may still stay with the team, where he has been for the last 13 years, overseeing the team and making sure that everything runs smoothly, that reliability is maintained and, for a very long time, even working as the man with the fuel hose to make sure that there were no mistakes. Stepney is, without question, a very important member of the Ferrari team and if he is not happy the team needs to be sure before letting him go that there is someone who is sufficiently experienced and capable of replacing him. There are not many Stepneys around in F1 as his experience dates back to the late 1970s when he first started working with the Shadow F1 team. He followed Elio de Angelis to Team Lotus in 1980 and stayed with Lotus until the end of 1988, during which time he worked with Ayrton Senna. In 1989 he moved on to Benetton and was there until 1991 when he set up a Formula 3000 team for one year with Nelson Piquet.

The rumours of his imminent demise at Maranello are probably more to do with negotiating the terms of a new contract while at the same time seeing what is available back in England.