OCTOBER 30, 2003

Alexander Wurz and Jaguar Racing

McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz has been in demand at Jaguar ever since last summer when the team was trying to get rid of Antonio Pizzonia. At the time Wurz could not get out of his McLaren contract, despite the fact that the team said that it would not stand in his way. Wurz says that McLaren still wants him in 2004 but says that he has an offer on the table from Jaguar Racing. The deal is believed to be related to a possible sponsorship agreement between Jaguar and Austrian energy drink company Red Bull which appears to want to do a deal for Wurz to race for the team and for Christian Klien to be the team's test driver. Klien is considered to be too inexperienced to go straight into F1 and this has allowed Wurz into the picture. The deal, if it goes ahead, could be worth as much as $15m a year to Jaguar for several years. At the moment there are still other teams in the negotiations as Red Bull is trying to get the best deal possible but the most likely outcome is that Jaguar will get the deal and that Wurz will race there in 2004 and 2005 and that Klien will test for the team in 2004 and then take over from Mark Webber when he moves to Renault in 2005.

Jaguar is not expected to make any announcement until later in the winter.