No contract renewal for Johnny Herbert

By Huw Alban
September 28 2006

I have to admit it was a surprise to see Johnny Herbert showing guests around the Spyker MF1 garage at the Silverstone test last week, but at the same time also very good to see him still taking an active role. Apparently that role finishes this Saturday.

Many thanks to forum contributor Robert W Dalgleish for making us aware of this. News agency GMM are making the claim, although at the moment there has been no actual comment from anyone in the team about this news.

Those that remember the initial purchase by Midland Group of Jordan will also remember the controversy over the appointment of Johnny in order to patch up the new Midland F1 team's image. Despite the team making significant gains with regard to their image throughout this season, the background behind Johnny's appointment never really went away and many still very much saw the popular British ex-F1 star of simply being a puppet to the press. Despite this he was frequently part of the UK ITV coverage and also made contributions to the team wesite in the form of very informative articles.

GMM have reported today that Johnny has not had his Sporting Director's contract, which ends this Saturday, extended by the Spyker MF1 management. GMM have also published a quote by the teams current Manager of Business Affairs, Ian Phillips, but it is unclear as to in what context that quote was given.

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