After a successful twenty years in motorsport, Jaguar Racing's Chief Engineer Malcolm Oastler has announced his retirement from the sport to concentrate on setting up a rural venture with his family in his native Australia. Malcolm joined Jaguar Racing in 2002 as a consultant on the 2003 racing car, Jaguar R4, and has since played a critical role in the development and rollout of this year's challenger, Jaguar R5. Malcolm will work his notice period and remains with Jaguar Racing until mid June.

"I've had a fantastic 20 year stint playing racing cars, but I don't think it's something you should do forever. As much as I love the technical aspects and the people, the lure of the southern sun and the beach have won the day." said Malcolm. "I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone I have had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. In particular, I want to express my sincere appreciation to everyone at Jaguar Racing. This was far from an easy decision for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Jaguar in helping to make the team competitive. My key challenge over the past year has been to ensure we produce a competitive racing car and in the Jaguar R5, I believe we have achieved that result. A comprehensive development programme over the course of this season will ensure that remains the case," said Malcolm.

Jaguar Racing's Managing Director, David Pitchforth, commented: "We are sad to see Malcolm leave given his valuable input to our programme and wish him the very best for the future. He has contributed an enormous amount to motorsport over a twenty year period with his designs having graced everything from Formula Ford to F3000, Indycar and Formula One.

"Since joining Jaguar Racing in 2002, we have benefited enormously from Malcolm's input into the R4 upgrade programme and the design and development of our 2004 challenger, Jaguar R5. We had agreed from the onset with Malcolm that his tenure with Jaguar Racing would be relatively short-term and focused upon what were critical short-term objectives aimed at ensuring the competitiveness of the Jaguar R4 and R5," continued Pitchforth.

"Malcolm's role as Chief Engineer allowed him great autonomy and freedom between various departments and it is a role that worked very well indeed for both parties. His engineering experience and acumen have manifested themselves clearly in this year's racing car. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone at Jaguar Racing in wishing Malcolm all the very best of luck for the future," concluded Pitchforth.