De la Rosa Arrival at Jaguar Surprises Scheckter

South African Tomas Scheckter expressed surprise on Tuesday that Jaguar had signed Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa to work with him as a test driver at the Formula One team.

Speaking from Spain, where he is working towards a Formula Nissan Championship deal, Scheckter said he had been unaware of moves to bring in the former Arrows driver.

"As far as I thought, I was the only Jaguar test driver," said the 20-year-old son of Ferrari's 1979 world champion Jody.

"Jaguar have not been in contact with me and I was not aware of it at all."

Scheckter signed a deal with Jaguar in September 2000 to take over from Luciano Burti as test driver when the Brazilian secured a full drive as the replacement for departing Briton Johnny Herbert.

He competed for Stewart Racing in the British Formula Three Championship last year and said he hoped to secure a deal in the Formula Nissan Championship to work in conjunction with his Jaguar test drives in 2001.

"I haven't signed anything in Formula Nissan yet," he said. "It is a good series and I'm keen to keep racing. It can also work around the tests, which is good.

"Hopefully, I'll be doing quite a bit of testing this year. There is no set plan, but I think I'll do around 15 or more tests."