Irvine: No Rush to Decide Future

Ulsterman Eddie Irvine is in no hurry to make a decision about his future, the Jaguar driver said ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix today.

"I'm in no rush to do anything, I'm quite happy just plodding along and see what happens," said the Irishman at a press conference at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. "I think I'm in a fairly good position and I know I can do the job."

36-year old Irvine, the oldest driver of the current field, finishes his contract with the Milton Keynes team at the end of 2002 and he is expected to be replaced by Australian Minardi driver Mark Webber, whose team boss Paul Stoddart said the switch to the Ford-owned squad was imminent.

Apart from Jaguar, only Toyota, Arrows, Minardi and Jordan have to confirm their driver line-up for 2003, with Irvine being linked with a move to Jordan, for who he drove at the start of his Formula One career, to replace Japanese rookie Takuma Sato.

Irvine was also recently linked with a Ferrari test drive, but the Irishman laughed off the rumours as a "joke."

"That's not going to happen," said Irvine of the rumours. "Mugello's hard work, the idea of driving around Mugello for two or three days and then you'd actually need a week of recovery after doing three days hard testing for Ferrari at Mugello. No, that's a joke that made a headline."