Pitchforth turns his back on racing

Pitchforth was ousted from his role in F1 after Jaguar was taken over by Red Bull, but speculation continued to link him with a return to the sport once his contract with the team expired in the middle of last year.

Despite the opportunities in racing, however, Pitchforth has decided to gain experience in the aviation field instead.

"Since leaving F1 and securing an exit from my contract, I have taken some time to examine all my options for the future," he told autosport.com.  It would have been both easy and comfortable to drop into something familiar in motorsport or automotive.

"However, I set an aggressive goal of finding a role with a product more technical and emotive than an F1 car, coupled with a truly significant real-business challenge.  In short, I concluded that I need a serious job in the real world.

"Having chosen to resist the lure of the F1 paddock, I have decided that I need to gain some experience in aviation to compliment my automotive, R&D, and racing background.

"To achieve this goal I have accepted the role of Transformation Director with Augusta-Westland.  In this role, I will be responsible for overseeing the change of the Military Helicopter business as it establishes its new relationships with the government and its partners within Finmeccanica."

Pitchforth has not ruled out a return to F1 in the future, however, especially with the sport hopefully heading for a more cost-efficient and less political future.

"I will obviously keep an interested eye on F1 from my perspective of someone who survived the experience to see how the industry works through its current problems.

"However, for now I am excited about leading the transformation of Britain's Helicopter manufacture."