AUGUST 15, 2002

New chief designer for Jaguar Racing

Jaguar Racing will announce shortly that it has signed a deal with Rob Taylor to be the team's new chief designer, replacing John Russell. Taylor has been head of vehicle design at Arrows in recent years and his knowledge of the Arrows-Cosworth chassis will be useful as Jaguar tries to emulate the better performance seen this year by Arrows.

The initial layout of the car has been done by former chief designer John Russell but Taylor may decide to make alterations when he starts work at Jaguar on Monday. The aerodynamic team under Ben Agathangelou, which numbers 50, includes Mark Handford and Darren Davies and the windtunnel in Bicester is working flat out on the design of the new car.

It is anticipated that there will soon be announcement about who will be driving for the team next year with all the indications being that Mark Webber will be drafted in to replace Eddie Irvine, while Pedro de la Rosa will stay with the team to provide stability.