By Huw Alban
May 15 2002

This story was first broken by ITV’s James Allen during the UK’s Austrian Grand Prix TV coverage. Up until now this site put it down to idle chatter, but the same rumour has now appeared on the TAG Heuer F1 news service - worryingly TAG are a partner-sponsor of the McLaren Mercedes team. TAG Heuer simply reports that Mike Coughlan has been linked with a position in the McLaren team for the 2003 season, and that his contract with Arrows is due to expire at the end of the year.

F1NewsWire throws a slightly different light on the story, saying that Coughlan has always been hidden from the limelight behind people like Eghbal Hamidy and Sergio Rinland, but in actual fact he is more responsible for the design of the car than the people shielding him. The news service believes that he has been noticed this year because of the highly competitive A23 chassis, which has caught more than a couple of admiring glances from other teams up and down the grid.

F1NewsWire must be pretty sure of it’s facts too. It uses the word ‘when’ in describing the role which Coughlan will take at McLaren. It is expected that he will oversee the aerodynamics department, working alongside Adrian Newey and Neil Oatley.

Although the manner in which James Allen broke the story was under the banner of ‘paddock talk’, ITV F1’s official website has also decided to run a story on this development. They too adopt a different slant, saying that Coughlan’s position has become difficult in the team since the arrival of Sergio Rinland from Sauber last year.

At this time there has been no official word from the OrangeArrows team on the rumours.