Chief explains Jag tech staff rationale

Although most other teams in the paddock have these job titles, Purnell says he has split the roles to make it more manageable for his staff.

"If you consider the role played by the traditional F1 technical director, for example, he's required to be something of a demi-God," said Purnell. "Not only is he expected to have a full understanding of every last nut and bolt on his car, but he's also expected to be an able manager of the whole shebang. Yet, from my own experience, I've learned that technically very gifted people are rarely very good people managers. So the first thing we've done is to separate those two aspects of the traditional technical director's role. It's simply too much to expect from one guy.

Purnell believes that clearly stated job roles will avoid any of his staff from taking on too much workload.

"I'm not into autocrats; I'm into teamwork," he added. "For that reason I've tried to select titles that avoid requiring anyone to be a superman. So we've got no technical director, for example. No chief designer either. We wanted to appoint the right people, and then give them titles that accurately reflect what they're actually going to spend their time doing. So Ian Pocock [engineering director, Jaguar Racing] will be in charge of the management of the technical operation -- while Malcolm Oastler [chief engineer, Jaguar Racing] will be in charge of technical detail only."