Irvine defends Jordan over H-HF sack

The ex-world champion's on-off retirement saga in 1999 clouded the most successful season in the Silverstone-based team's history. Frentzen won two races while Hill dragged out the issue of his retirement through half a season of uncompetitive and embarrassing drives, finally calling time on his racing career by simply pulling into the garage at the last race in Japan.

Irvine believes his friend and former team boss acted decisively this time after signs that he was set for a repeat.

"I think the Damon Hill experience burnt him badly and I don't think he was prepared to have the same thing happen to him twice," he said. "He wants results, just as much as anybody else in this pitlane.

"In Formula 1 it's about doing the job. You do the job and you get paid lots of money, and if you don't then go and lie on a boat. It's that simple. I think people keep forgetting where EJ came from and where he is now and he hasn't done that by being a sucker.

"It wouldn't be Formula 1 if it wasn't like that. You are here because of your performance and if you are not performing - and to be honest I haven't looked to see if Heinz is performing or not - but I assume they thought he wasn't performing, so it was goodbye.

"EJ had a season where Damon wasn't performing. He was getting the wages of a top Formula 1 driver, but wasn't performing like a top Formula 1 driver, for whatever reason. I assume EJ didn't want that to happen again, and that's what he felt was happening. Fair enough.

"If I was a team owner I wouldn't want to pay someone to drive the car slowly - and I'm not saying Frentzen was driving the car slowly. Everyone is here because of what they can do, not because of what they did."

Irvine was fastest overall for Jaguar Racing after Friday's pair of free practice sessions for Sunday's German Grand Prix.