De la Rosa Confident of Stronger Showing

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa is confident of a better performance from his Jaguar team following a positive test at the Monza circuit last week.

The Ford-owned outfit introduced a revised version of their problematic Cosworth-powered R3 car at the British Grand Prix, but the new machine failed to live up to the expectations, with both de la Rosa and teammate Eddie Irvine qualifying near the bottom of the field.

But Jaguar were in action at Monza last week as they continue working to understand how to get the best out of the revised chassis, and de la Rosa said the R3B should work better at this weekend's French Grand Prix, where the Spaniard will try to score his first points of the year.

"I think the last test in Monza was very positive for the team," said de la Rosa. "We've learned some things, how to make the new aero package work better. Still we are not sure how much better that means but it's definitely better.

"We will see, compared to other people in proper circumstances, how much we have improved during the past week, but the feeling is that we have made another step forward. We are running the new LK engine which is a good step again. We have been running it in qualifying and the race since Silverstone.

"We introduced it for the first time in Canada in qualifying, and it seems to have worked well. It's reliable, we're finishing races which is important."

Jaguar have scored only three points so far in 2002, thanks to a fourth place finish by Irvine at the Australian Grand Prix.