De la Rosa wants Irvine out

The Spaniard joined up with Irvine at Jaguar four races into 2001, but says the relationship between them has now deteriorated to the extent that they are no longer on speaking terms.

"Working with Irvine has been the worst part of the season," he told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. "He's very inconsistent with his decisions and it's very hard to work with him, especially when things are going wrong.

"When things are going right everybody is happy, but when things go wrong you have to be united, and that has been very hard with him. We hardly talked at the start of the season, and as the races went by we stopped talking to each other. In the final races we didn't even look at each other's eyes."

Irvine's three-year deal with Jaguar finished at the Japanese GP and de la Rosa, who is contracted to the team in 2003, hopes the Ulsterman will not be retained.

"Well, I'm not the one responsible for this, but as far as I know he won't. I hope he won't."

This season Irvine scored all of Jaguar's eight points, and publicly criticised de la Rosa's input in turning the R3's performance around.