McLaren's Newey to take a back seat

Last year, AUTOSPORT revealed that Newey, reputed to be F1's top designer, wanted to quit the sport in the next few years to concentrate on other challenges. He mentioned the Americas Cup yacht race as something he was interested in pursuing.

Now he has told Italy's Autosprint magazine that the team's technical department is being restructured to allow him to step away from its day-to-day running.

"I think I have been able to show I know how to build winning cars," he said. "Now my objective is to restructure McLaren. At the moment my main task isn't to design the chassis, but to create a team of engineers that is less dependent on me. I'd like to create a structure where my role won't be so important, so I can offer advice when it's required.

"The big teams now have more than 100 engineers, so technical departments can't be run like they were in the past, and single individuals with competence in every area aren't needed any more."

Arrows technical director Mike Coughlan is expected to be part of Newey's plan. He is "on holiday" from Arrows at the moment and is said to be considering his future.