JULY 9, 2001

Jaguar living up to pre-season predictions

POSSIBLY, just possibly, Bobby Rahal may come to think that his failure to recruit McLaren technical chief Adrian Newey might turn out to be the best thing that's happened to Britain's newest F1 team.

After Irvine spent the French Grand Prix sending a stark wake-up call to both Jordan and BAR, the team principal last week expressed the view that the team goes into this weekend's British Grand Prix with its pre-season objective sight on target.

"I'm pleased at the rate at which we continue to move forward," he said, "but there's a fair way to go. We are pushing forward at a relentless rate and compared to this time last year, we have come on in leaps and bounds.

"The message is clear - we are on target to meet our objectives for this season and our goal now is to qualify higher up the order. The British Grand Prix is special for many reasons, and in our case it's an opportunity for all the 321 employees of Jaguar Racing to see the fruits of their hard labor."