Newey to stay at McLaren!

[Ralf's Girl]

From F1-live:

McLaren technical director, Adrian Newey has confirmed his commitment to stay at the Woking outfit for a period of three years beyond the terms of his existing contract, which expires in August 2002. Earlier today the Jaguar Racing outfit confirmed that Newey would be joining them as of August next year, something McLaren vehemently denied. Now it appears as if there was some confusion over comments made by Newey to Bobby Rahal and there are no plans on his departure after all.

“Clearly Adrian has been looking for fresh challenges, he has now concluded that we can provide them from within our organization,” Ron Dennis explained. “I know how competitive Adrian is and I am very comfortable that he will continue to apply his usual energy to our program.”

McLaren and Adrian very much regret the confusion, which was caused by the statements released earlier today, however, both parties are delighted to continue this successful relationship, which has developed over the past four years. During the extended term of Adrian's contract with the team, he will remain Technical Director responsible for the design of the 2002 and 2003 cars. It is anticipated that during this time Adrian and the team will evaluate other sporting technical challenges, which they may pursue in the future. It is now very much the priority of Adrian and the team to concentrate on winning more races and the Championship in 2001, whilst making the best preparation for the 2002 campaign.

“Whilst I am delighted to confirm my intention to remain at McLaren International and recognise that there are many exciting opportunities ahead, I regret any speculation which has been caused by my conversations with my good friend Bobby Rahal,” Newey remarked. “I appreciate that I came very close to working with him again and have agonised over this decision. I informed him of my decision to remain at McLaren some time prior to the release issued this morning by Jaguar Racing but I understand that the mechanisms of this release made it impossible to stop and I am sorry for any embarrassment that it will have caused to my friends at Jaguar and McLaren.”

[garyegrant]

One word: Yay!!!

Yet another PR disaster at Jaguar though - again the words 'p*ss-up' and 'brewery' rise to mind....

[Orange]

well, damn.

[Emfa]

Well, I'm glad that's settled then. For now......

[JeremySmith]

Adrian Newey.."So Ron I think it is time you and I talked money"

Ron Dennis...."I was afraid you were going to mention that"

Ron Dennis..."How about a TAG watch of your choice of course..WAIT and one of our super hi-fi systems..

Adrian...Excuse me Ron....Picks up the phone...Is this Jaguar? Let me speak to my buddy Bob..

[drexel]

Is that a joke?

[Tristan]

What da fah......???!!!!