Competition This Week.(Bobby Rahal resigned as chief executive of the Jaguar Racing Formula One team )(Brief Article)(Interview)

Bobby Rahal resigned as chief executive of the Jaguar Racing Formula One team after a lengthy meeting in London Aug. 23. Rahal, who was appointed by Ford CEO Jacques Nasser and began a three-year contract on Dec. 1, 2000, appears to have lost out in a boardroom battle. His adversary was Niki Lauda, who was recruited by Wolfgang Reitzle in February as the chairman of Ford's Premier Performance division, to oversee Jaguar Racing, Cosworth and Pi Research.

Since they found themselves jointly charged by Ford with the operation of its Jaguar-branded Formula One team, there have been public differences of opinion between Rahal and Lauda. It seems that the issue that brought matters to a head was Rahal offering Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine to the B&H Jordan Honda team in a swap for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. This clearly upset Lauda, who knew nothing of it. Rahal was also at the center of the pitch for Adrian Newey in June, which turned into an embarrassing episode when McLaren's technical director backtracked overnight and decided not to join Jaguar Racing after all.

In an exclusive interview with AutoWeek, Rahal talked about what he faced in his nine-month struggle to make the Jaguar team a world-class contender.

``There was such a difference in management philosophy between Niki and I,'' Rahal said via phone shortly after a three-hour meeting with Reitzle.

``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.

``If I have the responsibility for turning around the team, then I have to have the things to be held accountable. There was just a difference of opinion on how to get things done, and you can't have that. I think that we [he and Lauda] are very different people. You can't have two guys with two strong views on how to do something run the same business. There's going to be an impasse at some point. It's just like corporate America. It's just very disappointing.''

Racing, Rahal noted, is different in Europe. ``Formula One is a club. If you haven't been here a long time your chances aren't that great at succeeding. It's very incestuous. There is a definite dichotomy between the [new] manufacturers' teams and the blue bloods such as McLaren and Williams, the ones who built F1. It's a lot like NASCAR in that respect. The club rules Formula One.