Burti: It’s impossible for Jaguar to drop me

Burti has struggled to match the pace of Jaguar team-leader Eddie Irvine in the opening two races of the season, despite carrying out much of the pre-season testing of the team's 2001 car, the R2. But the 25-year-old insists that, contractually, it is impossible for him to be dropped from the race squad.

Speaking by phone to a press conference in Sao Paulo after being delayed in Ohio, Rahal said: "I don't know how many times I have to say this, but our drivers are Luciano Burti and Eddie Irvine. As Luciano knows, we will give him 100% of our effort and he will give us 100% of his effort. The worst thing is all these rumours. I don't know how much clearer I need to be.

"Luciano did a good job in Malaysia and this weekend we hope to do better. We will be doing everything we can to help him do a better job."

While far from an unequivocal vote of confidence, Rahal's message was more positive than his line in Malaysia, when he told the media, "I guess anything can happen, but if you are asking me to give an unequivocal no to any possible situation [such as de la Rosa replacing Burti], I can't do that."

But whatever Burti's performance in the upcoming races, the situation is believed to be pre-decided by the Brazilian having a virtually watertight contract for 2001 - something he reiterated in the Sao Paulo press conference.

"I try to be as removed from the rumours as I can," he said. "When the rumours started that I was going to leave, I approached Bobby and asked what was happening and the problem came to an end. Contract-wise, it is quite impossible to happen."

Burti stood by the team's decision to guarantee Spaniard de la Rosa a race seat in 2002, saying: "Bobby Rahal and (Jaguar Racing overlord) Niki Lauda want the team to grow quickly and they know they needed someone experienced. De la Rosa had an offer from Prost and the only way Jaguar could persuade him to join them was to offer him a race seat in 2002. It may seem rash, but from the team point of view it is a good structure. Both Eddie and myself agreed."

With de la Rosa driving next season, one of the existing driver line-up must be given the elbow at the end of the season. Irvine's contract isn't due to expire until the end of 2002, so Burti knows the pressure is on to perform.

"I will do everything to convince the team that I am the best choice," he said. "Whether I stay or not will depend on the results. If I don't do a good job, then I don't deserve to be in F1.

"But Eddie is the number one driver in the team, so his chances are greater than mine," he added.

Rahal also spoke about Jaguar's overall performance in the opening two races of the season, targeting BAR and Jordan as the team's immediate benchmark. But he stressed that the Milton Keynes-based team still needs to raise its game.

"We are half a second off British American Racing and Jordan and we need to find that to be satisfied," he said. "We are developing the car rapidly and I think we will be improved [in Brazil]. We need to do a much better job than we are doing at the moment."