MAY 2, 2001
Jaguar must wait for a month to improve
JAGUAR's Eddie Irvine will have to wait a month for the performance improvements he believes Jaguar desperately needs to haul themselves up into a points-scoring position.
A poor start to the season was only briefly brightened by good performance in Friday practice for last weekend's Barcelona race, and the team, which has yet to score a point this season, hopes major new aerodynamic developments in Canada will help do the job.
Luciano Burti was swapped for Pedro de la Rosa before the Spanish Grand Prix, but the team knows that it is the car which is the problem and they are working it out.
"We are brutally aware of the challenge this team faces and we will continue to fight hard towards our targets," said team chief Bobby Rahal after the disappointing Barcelona race.
"We have developments in progress and it's only a matter of time before our cars are better placed to fight for points."
Those developments come in the form of aerodynamic improvements which include a revised floor and diffuser created by Mark Handford and his design team.
The work was done in the Swift wind tunnel in California, an arrangement which is not ideal for fast and smooth development.
The team had planned to move to Silverstone and create a new base which would house a wind tunnel but Rahal announced at the end of March that they are now looking at other sites.
One of those potential places is believed to be on 'Reynard Park', just down the road from Silverstone in the Formula One town of Brackley.
The wind tunnel would be in the same location as British American Racing's headquarters, while at the other end of town Jordan run their aerodynamic program in the another tunnel.