Lauda Confirms Jaguar Talks with Button

Jaguar have talked to Renault's young Briton Jenson Button about driving for them next season but nothing has been decided, the Formula One team's boss Niki Lauda said.

"We have looked at (Spain's Fernando) Alonso, (Australian Mark) Webber and we talked to Button because we are evaluating what drivers are available next year," he said at a photographic exhibition on Tuesday. "We have to wait and see.

"It could be that we start next year again with Eddie (Irvine) and Pedro (de la Rosa) but it could very well be that we do something because we haven't taken a decision yet. Pedro has a contract next year really so he will stay for sure. So the question is Eddie.

"I have to see what other guys are doing, I have to get the picture right and then in September or at the end of August I have to make a decision."

Irvine's contract ends this year and the Northern Irishman turns 37 in November. He has said he is waiting to see what Jaguar's revised R3 car is like before deciding what to do next season. Jaguar tried out Alonso, a former Minardi driver who is now tester for Renault and tipped to replace Button, at Silverstone in May.

Webber, a current Minardi driver, tested with the Ford-owned team in Spain last week. Button has said he is talking to other teams, but not specifically Jaguar. However The Sun newspaper reported last month that he had visited the team's headquarters for discussions with Lauda.

Pay Cut

Irvine is one of the highest paid drivers on the grid, paid an estimated $10 million a year by a Ford-owned team struggling to make an impact. He scored Jaguar's first podium in Monaco last season and has produced all their three points in 2002 after a lucky fourth place in Australia where half the grid crashed out on the first lap.

The Briton has made clear he will take a pay cut if the car is right and Lauda said that was the case: "The money with Eddie is not the issue really here."

But the Austrian, three times a World Champion himself, said it would be the team and not Irvine who decided whether or not the driver remained at Jaguar.

"He is doing a good job, no question. But we decide who drives the car. First of all we have to get the car in order, this is the number one priority," he said. "As soon as the car is getting better and we know the next steps we are going to do, then we will think about the driver situation.

"Our priority at the moment is still the technical department to make the car quicker."