Jaguar tech boss sets his stall

Steiner joined the team at the end of 2001 from Ford's WRC programme. Initially his role was to manage factory, but when Steve Nichols was fired after the poor performance of the team's new R3, Steiner assumed the role of technical director.

With the team's Bicester windtunnel finally up and running, one of Steiner's first acts was to appoint former Renault aerodynamicist Ben Agathangelou, one of many new appointments the Swiss hopes to make over the course of the year.

"The windtunnel is of course a very positive step for us," he said. "We had the windtunnel for two weeks a month in America and now we have the tunnel for 24 hours a day so we need more people.

"We don't just need the chief aerodynamicist we have just recruited. You need model makers and all the other things to support this programme. I think it will take about six months to build up the necessary quantity of people."

Since Ford acquired Stewart Grand Prix and rebadged it Jaguar for the 2000 season, there has been a legacy of managerial changes and a revolving door of personnel. This has resulted in the team stagnating on the grid, with little or no progress made from year to year. However, Steiner is unconcerned about how the team got to where it is; he's focussed on moving it on to where it should be given the resources at its disposal.

"I'm not interested in analysing how we got here too deeply," he said. "I wasn't there. It's not an excuse; I'm just not really interested. We have to move forward. Measures have been taken in the team's development to ensure we don't end up there next year."

The full story appears in this week's AUTOSPORT, on sale now priced £2.80