SEPTEMBER 27, 2002

Jaguar 'update' today

The Jaguar Racing team has called the Formula 1 press corps to what they are calling "an update" this morning in Indianapolis. It is anticipated that this will not have any major announcements but will be simply to establish the current situation after the meeting of Ford Motor Company bosses in Paris on Thursday.

It is expected that the program will go ahead as planned. There is no driver announcement expected but it seems more and more likely that Mark Webber is going to be signed by the team for next year and with Pedro de la Rosa under contract there is no room for Eddie Irvine. It is interesting to note that just the other day Irvine began spouting forth about de la Rosa not being a very good test driver and one must assume that there was some motive to the comments, either to make a space for himself at Jaguar or to help Niki Lauda ease the Spaniard out of the team. De la Rosa has one year left on his current contract and dumping him would cost the team a couple of million dollars.

What is interesting is that there is no reason for Antonio Pizzonia to have tested for Jaguar recently were it not for the fact that there must a chance for the Brazilian to race for the team in 2003. Pizzonia is a Williams-contracted driver but the team wants him to race in 2003 and 2004 to build up experience in Grand Prix racing.