NewsOnF1 - Who is to blame for the Adrian Newey contract saga ?

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On Friday the 1st of June, the Jaguar Racing team made a statement early in the day announcing that they have secured the services of Adrian Newey (McLaren's Technical Director) starting from August 2002. Their press release contained comments from Adrian himself saying "This has not been an easy decision for me to make. I have enjoyed hugely my four years to date at McLaren and take great satisfaction from the success that we as a team have achieved ..... But, in the end the prospect of working once again with my close friend, Bobby, whom I have known since 1984 at March Racing, combined with the prospect of the exciting challenge that Jaguar Racing offers proved irresistible."

Shortly following that announcement, McLaren announced that Adrian Newey is staying with McLaren beyond August 2002 and followed it up with an official statement with Adrian saying "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. 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."

It appears that the matter will be going to court as Jaguar consider their options. Reports indicate that the contract value was around Ł9 million for 3 years and if Adrian was found to be in breach of contract, he and possibly McLaren will have to fork out a very large amount of money to Jaguar.

There have been strong rumours that Newey was going to Jaguar for days before it was officially announced and surely McLaren should have acted on that quicker if they are desperate to keep Newey. Or is it a case of Adrian using Jaguar to make the most out of McLaren. Did Jaguar play their cards right and could they negotiate getting another high profile member of the McLaren team instead ? Who stuffed up - Have Your Say (What others are saying)

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What others are saying:

I think Faisal S of Malaysia is very accurate is his summary and I agree with him wholeheartedly - Johan M - South Africa

If Bobby Rahal speaks truth than McLaren have not behaved well towards Jaguar Racing but at the end of the day you know that Newey is going to remain with Ron Dennis - Go Arrows - Rob - Australia

Who else is there to blame but Adrian Newey himself. I think he really did sign a contract with the Jaguar team or else they would not have released that statement to the press. However, this is what I also think happened.

1. After the Jaguar statement, Ron Dennis calls on Adrian Newey and show him the fine print in his contract. I assume, that Ron being Ron and F1 being the secretive sport that it is, Newey would have needed to give 12 months notice before leaving (ala Gustav Brunner) and there was probably a clause that said he cannot negotiate with another until say 6 months before his contract expires.

2. Having therefore clearly breached his contract, Newey now faces very expensive court action from Ron Dennis, though the latter cannily uses this as leverage for getting Newey to stay on. Afterall, Newey is the biggest factor in McLaren's current success so why lose him?

3. To sweeten the deal, Ron Dennis offers Newey the same pay as Jaguar and a chance to work on road car projects. Of course, Ron knows that Jaguar will take legal action, but when have the courts ever made effective rulings that punished wrong doers in Formula 1. Ron Dennis and Adrian Newey have therefore gambled that while they will be punished, it will be a mere slap on the wrist.

Is this fair of McLaren and Newey? Of course not. Formula 1 needs to respect contracts more and Paul Stoddart's call for an independent contract recognition board is the the right thing to do today. Only then will the "rich-teams" not steal from the poorer ones and greedy designers not treat binding contracts as mere confetti - Faisal S - Malaysia