Richard Burns's attempts to disentangle himself from a Subaru commitment for the 2002 world rally championship have become increasingly tortured and there is now unconfirmed talk of legal action and multi-million-pound settlements.
Burns has signed a contract with Peugeot for 2002, but his current team, Subaru, claim he has a binding agreement for next year. They are alleged to have sought an injunction to prevent Peugeot nominating him as one of their official drivers with the FIA, the sport's governing body, by last night's deadline.
For Peugeot, this would be a crisis. They have four drivers under contract for next year, but only Burns and the 2000 world champion Marcus Gronholm are regarded as all-rounders. They are desperate to nominate these two, rather than Gilles Panizzi or Harri Rovanpera, who are much weaker on some road surfaces than others. Burns was signed in the belief that he had no ties.
Whether Burns will drive a Subaru next year is another matter. The team are said to be prepared to release him, but only if he pays $10m (£7.25m) to get out of his contract. In the meantime, they can avail themselves of the opportunity to put a spanner in Peugeot's works.
Burns admitted in July that he had "an agreement" with Subaru, but under the circumstances neither he, his management team, Prodrive - the company that builds Subaru's rally cars and hires the drivers - nor Peugeot are willing to go into detail. Asked about the release fee, Prodrive's managing director Nick Fry answered, "I can't comment on that. We are discussing things. Clearly, it is in everyone's interests to get it cleared up one way or the other as soon as possible."
These are poorly charted waters. Contractual disputes are rare in rallying and there is no contracts recognition board.
The betting is that Burns will drive a Peugeot next year, partly because Prodrive has recruited Tommi Makinen to replace him, partly because the company's management remember a strained and fruitless 1998 season when Colin McRae was forced to abide by his contract rather than switch to Ford.
