22/10/2014
NEWS STORY
McLaren sporting director Sam Michael is to leave the team, and the sport, at the end of the season.
Contacted by Pitpass in the wake of speculation about the Australian's future with the team, a McLaren spokesperson formally confirmed that that Michael is to leave.
"After twenty-one years in the sport, Sam, his wife and two children are heading back to Australia," said the spokesperson, who confirmed that Michael gave notice of his intention to leave in March.
"This was a long standing plan," added the spokesperson, "he leaves us on very good terms".
Michael will attend the final three races of the season, beginning with next week's United States Grand Prix in Austin.
At the same time, the spokesperson was keen to deny claims, emanating from Italy, regarding technical director Tim Goss and chief operating officer Jonathan Neale.
"We categorically deny that they are leaving, there are no plans for them to leave," said the spokesperson of the "erroneous" report.
Having studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Michael, whose racing career began in Formula Holden, subsequently headed to Europe where he joined Team Lotus.
After the team went bankrupt in 1994 he moved to Jordan where he spent two years working on data acquisition and also installed a seven-post rig for simulating suspension movement and designing an active differential.
In 1997, he joined the Jordan test team, being promoted to race engineer for Ralf Schumacher a year later. When the German switched to Williams in 1999, Michael worked with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the German scoring victories in the French and Italian Grands Prix.
In 2001, Michael was recruited by Williams as Senior Operations Engineer, assuming the responsibility of managing the engineers at races and tests. In 2004, he was appointed Technical Director when Patrick Head took control of the Grove outfit's research and development division.
Following it worst start to a season in its history, Michael left Williams in May 2011, though he joined McLaren for the final (five) races of 2011 he did not assume his role of sporting director at McLaren until the start of 2012.
Chris Balfe