Rahal: Jaguar didn't need two bosses

"I was contractually able to do so, but you can ask (Team Rahal managing director) Scott Roembke ­ I didn't spend much time on CART," Rahal said. "It was not my decision to leave Jaguar. But if you don't have the mandate to do what you've been asked to do, then there's no point.

"I was brought in by Neil Ressler to do a job and Neil retired," he added. "Wolfgang Reitzle brought in Niki to head up the three groups that Neil had been heading up (Jaguar, Cosworth and Pi Electronics), and I think in the end, Dr. Reitzle had entrusted his faith in Niki. He felt in the end he had to go with that."

Rahal admitted that he and Lauda clashed over issues and that contributed to his downfall. But he also acknowledged that one of them ultimately was going to win out over the other.

"I made clear there could be only one boss," Rahal said. "I felt that if I didn't have the support... well, you can't be accountable if you're not given the power. One guy needs to be calling the shots. It doesn't do the team any good to have two bosses.

"Niki's and my management styles are very different and ultimately I think had my champions remained there, I would probably still be there," Rahal continued. "But my champions weren't there. It happens all the time in business. A guy brings a new team in and it's his decision. He wants those people accountable to him and the old team is redundant. I was the old team."

The Champ Car team boss added that he felt the Jaguar squad was making progress throughout his tenure. But he was unable to see through the plans he had started to put into place.

"I said all along that it was a work in progress that would take three to five years to reach fruition," Rahal said. "I don't know if I was given a chance in the end. But it's pretty problematic to have two strong individuals like Niki and I in the same room, both with the mandate to turn the team or the whole enterprise around. So it was probably naive to think that the two of us would happily skip arm in arm down the path to progress.

"I like Niki ­ that's not an issue. It's just that he has very strong opinions and I have very strong opinions."

Rahal dismissed talk that his alleged attempt to swap Eddie Irvine for Heinz-Harald Frentzen with Jordan GP was not a factor in his departure from Jaguar.

"That's a red herring," he said. "It seems to me the CEO of a company is supposed to know who works for it and who doesn't. That was smoke."