Tuesday 26th November 2002

Niki Lauda was asked to stand aside as team principal of Jaguar by Richard Parry-Jones, the head of the Formula One programme for Ford, which owned the team. “Honestly, the decision did surprise me,” Lauda, who was the fourth boss in a little over two years, said. “But what you’ve got to know is that Britons do have their unique way of solving problems. They saw away at the legs of the chair.”