NOVEMBER 23, 2000
Jaguar gearing up for 2001
JAGUAR RACING chairman Neil Ressler believes that his team will be better prepared for next season and is hoping the team will become more competitive.
The Milton Keynes based team struggled to compete with the rest of the field last season and collected only four constructors championship points in 17 races.
"We got off to a slow start this year," admits Ressler. "We had a relatively ineffective pre-season testing program, and fell behind. Things move so fast in F1 that recovering from that during the season is a very difficult task.
"We were obviously attempting to improve things, and we did, we were more competitive over the last two or three races. So that part was good. We have concentrated very much on what we can do to have a more effective pre-season.
"We've done a great many things already, and we'll do more to make sure that we are much better prepared."
Jaguar will start testing next month with new driver Luciano Burti alongside Eddie Irvine, and new test driver Tomas Scheckter at Ressler's disposal.
Meanwhile, the team has dismissed reports that Gordon Kimball is set to come in to replace technical director Gary Anderson, who came under criticism after last season's disappointments.
The spokesperson said: "The team knows nothing about this story. We don't know where it came from and as far as we know there will be no changes to the technical staff."