Exclusive: Pizzonia to Stay with Jaguar

Brazilian driver Antonia Pizzonia will remain at Jaguar for the rest of the year, Atlas F1 has learned.

Pizzonia has been under fire in recent days, after poor performance in the first four races of the season lead Jaguar chiefs to consider replacing the young rookie, with McLaren test driver Alex Wurz named as likely replacement.

However, despite a luckless weekend at Spain, Pizzonia was assured today by his team that he remains their driver for the rest of the year.

"I know I'm safe in the team now, that's official," Pizzonia told Atlas F1. "They came over to me today and said they made a mistake, so we carry on from here and hopefully get better and better each day.

"It's been a bit difficult. But this is Formula One. Things change so quickly here that you have to be ready for anything. I had so many problems in the first few races that I didn't really have the chance to show what I can do.

"I was really surprised, especially because they never said anything to me (about being replaced). This is Formula One, every day (is) a big surprise."

Pizzonia failed to start the Spanish Grand Prix today, after he was hit on the grid by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen following a launch control system failure.

"We had a launch control problem today, we don't know if it's the same as we had in Imola," the Brazilian said. "I have a test next week at Paul Ricard, so we can do a lot of work on the traction control and launch control system to make sure it doesn't happen again."