Jaguar Already Focused on 2003

Jaguar boss Niki Lauda was pleased to have clinched seventh place in the Constructors' Championship, despite losing a position to the Jordan team after today's Japanese Grand Prix.

The Ford-owned squad began the year fighting to avoid the final positions on the grid, and their Cosworth-powered R3 cars required a complete overhaul to move up the field in the final part of the season.

Austrian Lauda believes seventh place in the Championship is a good reward for all their work to make the R3 competitive.

"It's been an extremely tough season and one that we have managed to salvage something out of given the horrendous issues we began the season with on the Jaguar R3," said Lauda. "To have finished the season in seventh place is just reward for the incredible hard work that has gone into correcting the problems we began the season with.

"We started the season as the last team on the grid and it very unusual to correct serious issues like we had, albeit over the course of a season. A lot has been learned and passed onto the development of next year's car, which is now well underway.

"We begin testing the brand new 90-degree engine next month and given the magnitude of changes that we have made this season at every level of our organisation, we are now all focused on the exciting new project that is the Jaguar R4."

Irishman Eddie Irvine was the only driver from the Milton Keynes squad to finish the race today, in ninth position, while teammate Pedro de la Rosa retired with a mechanical problem on lap 39.