Lauda Asked to Step Down from Jaguar

Jaguar Racing confirmed this morning that team principal Niki Lauda has been asked to step down from his current position but will be offered an alternative post within the Ford-owned team.

Lauda, who has been in the job just more than a year after taking over from former boss Bobby Rahal in August 2001, is expected to make way for a new management structure. Team spokesman Nav Sidhu admitted Lauda will step down but added: "There are certain elements still unconfirmed. What we are reading here is just one piece of the jigsaw."

Sidhu admitted the Lauda departure was the "headline factor in the story" but insisted that the Austrian former driver is currently mulling over the option of a new position. The team struggled this season with a disappointing car and finished seventh in the World Championship after scoring eight points with just three top six finishes.

They have opted for a wholesale clear-out of their drivers for 2003, with Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia and Australian Mark Webber replacing Ulsterman Eddie Irvine and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.

The team will not comment on Lauda's replacement but Richard Parry-Jones, the head of Ford's Formula One programme and Sir Jackie Stewart, a non-executive director of the team, are set to explain the decision later today.

Team sources said last week that between 40 and 60 jobs would be axed in the next few weeks in a restructuring to counter the effects of the economic downturn.

Three-time World Champion Lauda was named chief executive of Ford's Premier Performance Division at the start of 2001, thus coordinating the motor sport activities of the Jaguar Racing team, engine supplier Cosworth Racing and electronics company Pi.

The Austrian then decided to dump American Rahal at the helm of Jaguar, taking over from the former driver and CART team owner as the Milton Keynes-based squad's boss.