Lowe staying at McLaren despite launch no-show

2013 F1 season

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McLaren insist technical director Paddy Lowe will remain at the team despite not being present at the launch of this year’s car.

Lowe, who has been with the team since 1993, has been linked to a move to rivals Mercedes.

“The certainty is that Paddy will be part of the team for another year,” said team principal Martin Whitmarsh. “It’s less certain, I think as has been speculated in the media, beyond that. That’s something I’m sure we’ll have some certainty on in the near future.”

Asked why Lowe did not attend the launch of this year’s car, Whitmarsh said: “I think clearly there’s a lot of media interest. I think it’s good that Paddy concentrates on doing his job.

“I don’t think he wants to create any embarrassment to the team or any of his colleagues. So in his own election he felt it was inappropriate to be here.”

2013 F1 season


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Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Lowe staying at McLaren despite launch no-show”

  1. Something in this story just doesn’t feel right. He elected not to come, as he thought that he would be asked if he would go to Mercedes or not. If you look at it that way, I think he SHOULD have shown up, because then he could have answered the question with a firm ‘No’ and that would be it. Now however, everyone will keep on speculating as it is an odd thing to do as a technical director to not show up at the launch.

    It’s all a bit weird, and it’s that weirdness that makes me believe that the rumours could be true. Maybe Lowe will not move to Mercedes stante pede, but somewhere during the year to help Mercedes with designing their 2014 car.

    1. He’s def moving, this is so reminiscent of the Hamilton situation, first came rumors then there was silence at first from Hamilton till he had to face the media, and when he did he didn’t try to deny it, then guessed what happen, he moved. If Lowe wasn’t moving he would have said No ages ago but he hasn’t. I saw this coming though, I knew more people would move once Hamilton did, I just assumed it would be his personal race engineers etc, didn’t think it would be Paddy. Anyway, I give him 6 months and his out of there, almost like the way Adrian Newey left McLaren.

  2. Whitmarsh’s response is bizarre. Embarassing for the head designer to show up at the car launch? These “will be with the team next year” comments sound just like those he made before another key employee who left for Mercedes.

    I think we can now look forward to seeing Hamilton driving a car tailored by Lowe in 2014. Now, Hamilton’s move is starting to look a little less rash.

  3. I can say with absolute certainty that Paddy Lowe will be staying with McLaren until he leaves.

    1. :-) no kidding

    2. I see what you did there.

  4. Mclaren: “Paddy Lowe is definitely staying!”
    F1F commneters: “Now we know he’s definitely leaving!”

  5. Only in F1 engineers are as famous as the drivers themselves.

  6. HoHum’s got it absolutely right! The writing’s on the wall but no one’s willing to read it aloud. Lewis wouldn’t be the first driver to lure some engineering talent away with him; in GP bikes, Valentino Rossi’s taken his entire engineering staff with him from Honda to Yamaha to Ducati & back to Yamaha.

    1. …Tell me, did you actually bother to READ HoHum’s comment?

      1. @bendana Ahahaha he did go off on a bit of a tangent from that…

        1. Wee Bit, yeah!

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