Pitchforth Replaces Steiner as Jaguar MD

Guenther Steiner has been replaced as Jaguar Racing's managing director by David Pitchforth in the latest restructuring announced by the Formula One team on Thursday.

"As of this morning, Guenther Steiner has relinquished his position as managing director of Jaguar Racing," said spokesman Nav Sidhu.

He added that the Italian, recruited from Ford's rally operation by former Jaguar team boss Niki Lauda last December, was in discussions "about the direction of the new organisational structure and his subsequent involvement."

"He has relinquished his responsibilities as MD but has done nothing wrong," Sidhu said. "This organisation is in significantly better shape now than when he joined.

"Guenther has clearly laid down the engineering baseline that David will now aim to take on to the next level."

Former world champion Lauda lost his job as team boss and head of Ford's Premier Performance Division (PPD) last week, and is considering taking up a special advisory role with the Ford-owned team.

Briton Pitchforth, 37, joined Jaguar last March as temporary head of aerodynamics from the Auto Research Centre in the United States where he was managing director.

He supervised the building of four wind tunnels, including Jaguar's Bicester facility and at Jaguar was project manager for next season's R4 car as well as the revised R3.

Key Roles

Jaguar, who have made some 70 redundancies after a comprehensive review by Ford F1 boss Richard Parry-Jones, also said they have appointed a new engineering director to oversee four other key roles.

The team has no formal technical director and Sidhu said Jaguar saw no need to appoint one because of the split responsibilities between the managing director and engineering director.

"We believe that there would be too much on the shoulders of one man for it to work," he said.

Team sources said an engineering director had been signed but would not take up the position for another three months due to contractual obligations with another team.

Ben Agathangelou, who joined from Renault in May, is confirmed as head of aerodynamics working alongside chief car designer Rob Taylor.

Mark Gillan, who joined from McLaren this year, assumes the new role of head of vehicle performance while one other position, head of vehicle science, has yet to be filled.

Gillan will oversee all engineering issues at the racetrack while the second will be in charge of all computer simulations and developments outside of the design process.

Australian Malcolm Oastler, former technical director of British American Racing, will become a full time Jaguar employee from January as chief engineer reporting directly to the engineering director.

Jaguar, who finished last season a disappointing eighth overall and have yet to win a grand prix since their debut season in 2000, have still to name a replacement for Lauda as their fifth team principal in two years.

"The role really is a critical one for us," said Sidhu.

Apart from the management changes, Jaguar will also have an all-new line-up next season, with Australian Mark Webber and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia behind the wheel.