Pitchforth Ready for Motorsport Return

Pitchforth has been forced to sit on the sidelines for the last six months after Jaguar's new owners Red Bull Racing decided to axe him and team principal Tony Purnell from their positions in January.

Despite not wanting him to continue at their operation, Red Bull Racing refused to release Pitchforth from his contract, which has prevented him from finding work elsewhere. However, his contractual links with the team are now over and he is looking at getting back involved in the sport.

"It's a weight off my mind," he told Autosport-Atlas about being finally contractually free. "I am looking at getting back into motor racing, and not many people get a chance to reassess their careers. However, F1 is not in the best of health of the moment."

After the pressures of the final year of Jaguar Racing, where Purnell and Pitchforth worked hard to save the team after Ford decided to pull the plug on the operation, Pitchforth actually welcomed being off the scene for a while.

"It's been good," he said. "In the last year at Jaguar there were pressures from the parent company and pressures from the job - and I had it from both sides. That is difficult, because you end up being on your own.

"I've taken a bit of time to get my head straight and work on getting the contractual situation put to bed."

Pitchforth is likely to have little problem finding a job in the sport. Despite not seeing eye-to-eye with Red Bull chiefs, he is highly regarded in the F1 paddock for his work at Jaguar Racing prior to Ford's decision to pull out.

And although he was disappointed not to have remained at Red Bull Racing after all the work he put in at Jaguar, Pitchforth has nothing but pride for what he achieved during his spell at the Milton Keynes-based team.

"I am very proud of what we did at Jaguar," he said. "We had less money and we made a better car. It gained on the competition so I was very proud of the people that we had there at the end.

"There was the threat of redundancy and I am proud that everyone stuck together and also proud that we sold the team. It meant that we helped Ford and we helped Red Bull - and that is an achievement I am proud of."