 McLaren and Jaguar Slam F1 Magazine Saturday June 30th, 2001
The magazine, owned by Bernie Ecclestone and tagged 'the official Formula One magazine', Claimed Newey had signed a binding contract with Jaguar, changed his mind and then signed a renewed contract with McLaren. Jaguar was then set to take legal action against McLaren, but just before the court hearing on the matter, both teams reached a private settlement, which included one million UK pounts compensation fees to Jaguar. Furthermore, the magazine claimed that McLaren were forced to pay around £15 million to Newey himself in order to keep him in the team. However, both McLarem and Jaguar have released a statement in France, denying these claims. This is after the issue had been raised in Europe, a week ago, where several teams have apparently expressed displeasure with the coverage the magazine provides. "I am bitterly disappointed with the reporting," Dennis told journalists in the Nurburgring paddock. "There are many things that are absolutely not true and there was tremendous exaggeration on a number of issues. What I would say is, I've said it to Bernie, I've said it to the publisher, that the pitch of the magazine, in my opinion, is designed to be, and positioned to be, a magazine that positively reflected on Formula One. "I am not against the media and I am not against freedom of speech, but both myself and several team owners over several issues, the reportage of a range of accidents in the magazine that preceded the Melbourne race, the reportage of Paul Morgan's tragic death, and the reportage of this issue is in my opinion tasteless, often inaccurate, and not a positive reflection on Formula One. There's ways to say things and there's ways to tell the truth, and in my opinion their way is the wrong way." Jaguar and McLaren's statement also claimed that the quotes attributed to Niki Lauda in his latest column - where he supposedly stated that "There have been many incorrect descriptions of the [Newey] affair in other publications but as always you can read the real situation in this issue of 'Formula One Magazine'" - were, in fact, not approved by the Austrian and that "he does not regard the 'Formula One Magazine' article as being accurate." Lauda himself was Editor-in-Cheif of the magazine until last month, when he was replaced by Nigel Mansell. The Austrian, however, continues to write a regular column for the magazine, which appears monthly. The magazine first appeared in March this year, at the Australian Grand Prix. The thick monthly issues feature some of the best Formula One journalists and several celebrity writers, including Jaguar driver Eddie Irvinr and McLaren driver David Coulthard. Media insiders told Atlas F1 that the magazine's primary goal was to break the stronghold Haymarket's "F1 Racing" has on the coverage of the sport. "F1 Racing" boasts almost half a million copies sold worldwide every month. However, according to recent reports, "Formula One Magazine" sales have by now surpassed "F1 Racing", at least in the UK.
Published at 16:36:04 GMT
| ||||||
The McLaren and Jaguar Racing teams have slammed "Formula One Magazine" for what they claim to be "inaccurate and misleading reporting" on the settled dispute concerning the services of technical director Adrian Newey.
(03-11-2005): 
