AUGUST 28, 2000

The future of Sam Michael

THE highly rated Jordan race engineer Sam Michael was widely tipped to be going to Ferrari next year but our sources say that the 29-year-old Australian will be moving to Williams.

THE highly rated Jordan race engineer Sam Michael was widely tipped to be going to Ferrari next year but our sources say that the 29-year-old Australian will be moving to Williams. Michael was recruited by Team Lotus in 1993 where he began as a data acquisition engineer. He moved to Jordan after Team Lotus closed down and established the team's research and development department and then designed an active differential. In 1998 he worked as race engineer to Ralf Schumacher and then inherited Frentzen. He masterminded Frentzen's finely-judged victory at Magny-Cours last year and was tipped as a possible technical director of Jordan when Mike Gascoyne departed earlier this year. Jordan decided to put Tim Holloway in charge of the design of the 2001 car and Michael began talks with other teams. It is unclear what role he would take at Williams Grand Prix as the team has Patrick Head as technical director, Gavin Fisher as chief designer and James Robinson as senior operations engineer.