Formula One teams McLaren and Jaguar are at loggerheads over the future of highly-rated technical director Adrian Newey. Jaguar announced that he was joining their team next year, but McLaren insisted that he was staying put. Ford-owned Jaguar claimed a major coup for the team, but just hours later, Newey's current employers claimed that the 42-year-old will remain with them until 2005.
In a statement released by McLaren, Newey himself said that he was sorry for any embarrassment caused by the saga and that he was staying where he was. McLaren team boss Ron Dennis said: "Clearly Adrian has been looking for fresh challenges, he has now concluded that we can provide them from within our organisation. I know how competitive Adrian is, and I am very comfortable that he will continue to apply his usual energy to our programme."
However Jaguar, who scored their first points of the season with a third place at Monaco last weekend, maintain that they have signed a contract with the designer. A terse statement read: "Jaguar Racing signed a contract with Adrian Newey in good faith. In light of this afternoon's statement from McLaren International it is, therefore, a matter for further discussion."
Newey was keen to play down the row. He said: "I regret any speculation which has been caused by my conversations with my good friend Bobby Rahal. I appreciate that I came very close to working with him again and have agonised over this decision.
"I informed him of my decision to remain at McLaren some time prior to the release issued this morning by Jaguar Racing but I understand that the mechanisms of this release made it impossible to stop," he said.
Arguably the most influential designer in Formula One, Newey added two drivers' titles and one constructors' title with McLaren to his four drivers' and five constructors' crowns before that at Williams.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
