Ferrari chief designer Rory Byrne has revealed that the Italian team’s next contender, the F2005, won’t be of his making after already handing over a major part of his responsibilities to the man expected to replace him at the end of the 2006 season, Aldo Costa.
"The 2005 car is already without my signature. The project is led by engineer Aldo Costa,” he confirmed to the Gazzetta dello Sport. “We are exchanging roles: he is taking over lots of my responsibilities, while I supervise. Costa has been my right hand for many years: I trust him very much. Various working teams respond to him now. hen the time comes for my retirement, he will have to be in charge of the entire system."
The South African has been the man behind the world championship winning contenders for the past six seasons, joining Ferrari at the same time as Michael Schumacher (1996) and while he will step down from his current role in the team at the end of 2006, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he will walk away from the Italian marque.
" My contract will end in February 2007, we'll see after that," he explained. "I could remain involved in a different way, but from 2007 I will certainly spend most of my time in Phuket, in Thailand, where my wife is from. I bought a 7,000 square meters piece of land by the sea: I will build a tourist village with cottages, while keeping the remembrance of the beautiful years at Ferrari for myself."
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