New duo set to step in at Jaguar

Jaguar will be making an announcement on the future of drivers Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa on Monday with reports suggesting they are to be replaced for next season.

A Jaguar source confirmed to PA Sport that Minardi racer Mark Webber and BMW-Williams’ Brazilian test driver Antonio Pizzonia are set to step in for 2003.

Pizzonia hugely impressed Jaguar during a test in Barcelona while Webber enjoyed an excellent debut season in Formula One.

“There is no bad feeling with Eddie and the team know they have not given him a great car for the past three years, it was just felt that new blood was needed to carry the team on,” the source said.

“With de la Rosa, it just has not worked out. He hasn’t come up to expectations. The team believe that Webber and Pizzonia will complement each other and spur each other on.

“Pizzonia did an astonishing test in Barcelona. He was producing times you would have expected after four days in the car in just one afternoon.

“He will really shake up the grid next year and take no prisoners. He is an even more aggressive version of Juan Pablo Montoya.”

It is understood that Irvine has not yet clinched a deal to drive for Jordan, whose backers Benson & Hedges are reportedly keen to get a British driver.

Jordan continue to insist that Japan’s Takuma Sato, who scored his maiden points after finishing fifth in the final race of last season, has a contract for 2003 and will partner Italy’s Giancarlo Fisichella.

Irvine scored all Jaguar’s eight championship points in 2002 – the highlight being third place in the Italian Grand Prix.

It earned him ninth in the drivers’ championship and lifted Jaguar to seventh in the constructors’ championship.

Irvine was given the news he was to go in a phone call from Jaguar team chief Niki Lauda while at his Miami home.

“This doesn’t really affect my plans for the future – but if I were a team boss, I wouldn’t be happy fielding two inexperienced drivers,” he told The Sun.

“With the new qualifying rules, drivers have just one flying lap to gain grid position and the experienced men will have an advantage.”