Boss Says Jaguar Face 10 Years of Toil to be Top

Jaguar face a decade of hard labour to get to the point where Formula One champions Ferrari are now, team boss Tony Purnell said today.

"People told me that it took Ferrari eight to 10 years to get from the depths to the heights so that seems a reasonable time frame to me," he told a news conference at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"I can't imagine that we will be very much quicker but hopefully we can just make steady progress as the years roll by," he added.

Ferrari have been champions for the last four years while Germany's Michael Schumacher, who has had a close-knit team of people around him since he joined the team in 1996, is chasing a record sixth title this year.

Australian Mark Webber is under contract at Jaguar until the end of 2005 and Purnell said the driver, fastest in free practice on Thursday, could be the cornerstone of the Ford-owned team's rebuilding process.

"Mark reflects the philosophy of the team in that he's straightforward, honest, hardworking and he's at the top through achievement and we want that message throughout the team," he said.

"People often ask me if he's the next Schumacher, with a team built around him. I wouldn't have thought so but it would be a very nice outcome and I wouldn't complain if history recorded that he was the second Schumacher."

Jaguar's second driver Antonio Pizzonia has been less successful and the team approached McLaren last month to try and sign their Austrian test driver Alexander Wurz as a replacement.

Those talks fell through and Brazilian Pizzonia, 22, was later confirmed for the rest of the season.

"I think if you watched him in Austria, his first 10 laps of the race or so were pretty damned good," said Purnell. "I think he is speaking for himself and given time will be a regular, I wouldn't say frontrunner but hopefully alongside Mark."