On 1 June 2001, Jaguar Racing announced that it had captured Adrian Newey from McLaren. For a few hours, it looked like the kind of signing that could bend a midfield project toward the front.
Jaguar had Ford money, green paint, Niki Lauda in the management structure and Bobby Rahal trying to add substance to the badge. Newey was the prize: the designer behind title-winning Williams and McLaren machinery, and exactly the sort of person a team hires when it wants everyone to stop smirking.
Then Formula 1 did Formula 1. McLaren moved to keep him, Newey changed course, Jaguar argued that a contract existed, and the matter slid into legal pressure before being settled. The designer stayed at McLaren, then eventually joined Red Bull in 2006, after Jaguar itself had become the base of Red Bull Racing.
It was an almost-signing with a long shadow. Jaguar announced the future. The future took a different entrance.
