Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Rahal quits Jaguar Racing after clashing with Lauda

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Formula One racing returns to the United States next month with the second running of the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Bobby Rahal won't be there -- at least not in an official capacity.

Rahal stepped down last Friday as CEO of Jaguar Racing after clashing with new Jaguar boss Niki Lauda, a former three-time F1 champion.

"There was such a difference in management philosophy between Niki and I," Rahal said. "The problem when you are trying to turn something around is that the results are difficult to see and the patience level (from the powers that be) is just not there.

"There was just a difference of opinion on how to get things done and you can't have that. I think that (Lauda and I) are very different people (and) you can't have two guys with two strong views on how to do something run the same business."

Rahal said the biggest disappointment of ending his 10-month stint with Jaguar is not being able to witness what he saw as a turnaround in the F1 program.

"Our whole goal was respectability," Rahal said. "It was showing promising results; we were putting in place a foundation for results in 2002. Last year was such a disaster."

Rahal said he now would turn his full attention to his two-car CART team with drivers Kenny Brack and Max Papis. Brack is second in the championship, five points behind Helio Castroneves.

"Now it's time to focus on helping CART and to building Team Rahal," he said. "We are in the midst of a championship battle with Kenny right now and I want to assist our team in helping them win a title. I've been through championship runs before and I hope I can help Kenny and the Shell team reach their goals.

"I also believe that Max and his Miller team can win some more races and we are working hard to get to the top of the podium in the seven remaining races."

Schumacher has been in four accidents this year. In the most recent incident, his Ferrari lost the rear spoiler and crashed at high speed into a barrier last week during testing in Mugello, Italy.

Schumacher captured his fourth F1 championship and tied Alan Prost's record of 51 Grand Prix victories by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix on Aug. 19.

"I cannot really find a really good reason because at the beginning of the season my car was running as fast as it is right now," Tagliani said. "I think it was just a question of always being at the wrong spot at the wrong time. We didn't change the car, we didn't do anything special, so the Players Team is just continuing to work the way they did at the start of the season."

The CART series resumes this weekend with the Molson Indy in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Bignotti, 85, helped A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and John Mecom Jr. to a combined 53 victories and seven Indianapolis 500 titles during his career. Some of the other drivers Bignotti worked with included Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Parnelli Jones, Tom Sneva and Gordon Johncock.

Bignotti's son, Billy, is a mechanic for Zali Racing.