FEBRUARY 16, 2001

Irvine unhappy with Jag staff

OUTSPOKEN Ulsterman Eddie Irvine has slammed his Jaguar team as they prepare for the first race of the season in Melbourne on March 4.

The former Ferrari driver, who became used to the large amount of personnel at the Italian team, claims there are not enough staff at Ford-owned Jaguar and said it is hampering their development.

"We are a bit understaffed," said the disgruntled Grand Prix star. "We have lost some mechanics and engineers, some good people.

"We have brought some people in, but we need to attract more good people. We have done a lot of work, but have not done some things that needed to be done."

There have been many changes at Jaguar over the winter and on the engineering side, Steve Nichols has replaced Gary Anderson as technical director.

However, the car has struggled in testing, and has been described as "too slow" by Irvine. He believes there is a great deal of work to do before the team gets out of the doldrums.