DECEMBER 1, 2000

Ressler praises Nichols' appointment

JAGUAR RACING Chairman Neil Ressler believes that the appointment of Steve Nichols as new Technical Director as successor to Gary Anderson will be extremely positive for the British team.

"Steve will bring a new technical dimension to the team," said Ressler. "His experience at the highest levels of F1 racing, together with his engineering skills, will give a new impetus to Jaguar Racing as we build for the future."

Thanking Anderson for his contribution, he added; "During the 2000 season Gary has worked hard to make the Jaguar R1 a competitive challenger in F1, but at this stage of our development we believe that a change in the team's technical direction will benefit Jaguar Racing as we go forward.

"For the next season we have a new car in the Jaguar R2, a new driver in Luciano Burti and, of course, a new Chief Eexecutive Officer in Bobby Rahal. The changes to our design and engineering staff will help to give the team a new and competitive focus and will enable us to give Eddie and Luciano the best possible support as they prepare for an intensive winter testing programme and the start of the new season in March."

Rahal commented; "I fully support these changes. Our immediate objective is to step up our overall competitiveness in 2001, but our longer term goal is quite clearly to challenge for the top honours in the sport.

"As Neil has consistently stated, we will continue to invest in the technical capability of the team in terms of facilities and talent in order to achieve this goal."