Sam Michael has confirmed he will join McLaren as its sporting director from 2012.
Michael, the current technical director at Williams, announced in May that he would leave Williams after 11 years with the team. He was originally meant to leave Williams after the Korean Grand Prix, but Williams announced today that he will have his last race with them at Singapore next week.
According to a McLaren statement, the Australian will “join the senior management team in addition to taking specific responsibility for the development and management of the team’s trackside operations.”
Michael was pleased to have secured his future in the sport.
“I’m extremely excited to be joining Vodafone McLaren Mercedes,” he said.
“Being a racer my whole life, I know that McLaren is one of the all-time greats of Formula 1.
“I already know and respect many of the team’s senior technical management figures, and becoming a member of that excellent working unit was one of the prime attractions of this new position.
“Equally, for some time I’ve closely observed and greatly admired both Lewis (Hamilton) and Jenson (Button) as grade-one drivers, and therefore regard it as an enormous privilege to be able to work with both of them.”
Frank Williams have Michael nothing but praise on his early departure.
“I am delighted that Sam has found a new role that will enable him to continue to apply his energy, passion and experience to Formula 1,” Williams said in a statement.
“On behalf of everyone at Williams I wish him a successful move to his new team.”
Looking forward, Williams is confident that his new leadership personel will help the former champion team.
“I would also like to thank Sam for his help in enabling a swift and smooth transition to our new technical leadership,” he said.
“Mike Coughlan and Jason Somerville are settling in very well and the restructuring will be complete when Mark Gillan joins us as Chief Operations Engineer on 19 September.”
