Grapevine: Willis Tight-Lipped over Jaguar Rumours

Jaguar target Geoff Willis has kept tight-lipped over a rumoured approach from the struggling manufacturer-backed team.

Both he and Williams colleague and chief designer Gavin Fisher are believed to have had talks with Jaguar, but Willis suggested a move would only be on the cards if it involved promotion and refused to say if he would leave Williams in the near future.

"Williams is a good team to work for and I have never paid any notice (to speculation)," said Willis. "It is dangerous to get into confirmation or denial, so I will just get on with the business of designing next year's car. Over the years you read that you are very good and then that you are a complete idiot, but the thing is not to believe either. If you live by the sword then you die by the sword. I like to think I keep objective about it."

However, Willis did suggest that if he were to move it would be in order to gain a promotion as there is little scope for movement up the ranks within teams in Formula One. Willis and Fisher have worked together to get the team back up to a winning level since Adrian Newey's departure in 1997, and Willis believes that any loss of top personnel should not now rock the team.

"I would hope someone in a reasonably senior position would make a difference," he said. "But I think any team should be able to survive changes. It is foolish to put your future in just one or two people. The reason people move is to take up promotions to new positions and take on new challenges, some move for money.

"All Formula One companies are small companies so there is little mechanism for promotion, as opposed to a large organisation. Once people get to a certain level that is why you see people leaving. So the way people are promoted tends to be by changing teams - but I will not comment on whether I want a promotion either."

A senior member of Jaguar's engineering team denied any knowledge of the rumoured move, but added: "Considering this place, I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up here."