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Head Says Pizzonia Will Pull Through

Williams technical director Patrick Head said today that Jaguar need to show more support to his former driver Antonio Pizzonia and said the under-fire Brazilian will pull through his mini-crisis.

Williams technical director Patrick Head said today that Jaguar need to show more support to his former driver Antonio Pizzonia and said the under-fire Brazilian will pull through his mini-crisis.

Pizzonia, who tested for Williams last season, is facing the axe after a disappointing start to his debut year in Formula One with McLaren-Mercedes tester Alex Wurz his rumoured replacement.

But Head said that Jaguar need to show the talented 22-year-old support and back him - rather than ditch him if he fails to shine in this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"I suspect that anybody who looks at it closely will see that there have been an awful lot of problems surrounding the support of Antonio's car," Head said. "I don't believe a race driver changes from being fast to being slow suddenly and I don't believe that his confidence would be shaken that readily.

"I can't really make too much comment about the conditions at Jaguar but I would have thought they would do better to look inwardly and say 'how can we put a bit more effort behind supporting him and providing him with more reliable equipment?'

"Anyway, it's very early in the season and I very much suspect that he'll pull through this one and he'll have a good career in Formula One. I think he deserves it."

Pizzonia, who won the British Formula Three Championship in 2000, earned rave reviews last year when he outpaced both Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya on occasions in testing. Head insisted his performance in testing last year was exceptional and he is backing the youngster to come good.

"I can't really make too much comment about him at Jaguar because I don't keep a close eye on that and I don't really know what's going on," he added. "All I know is that he did 14,000 kilometers of testing for us, he was instantly fast when he got in the car the first time - two or three laps and he was down to competitive times.

"That was the case at every test we went to. It literally only took him a lap or two and he was down to competitive times - all the basic signs of a good racing driver. I would have to say, at tests, he was equally as quick and sometimes a bit quicker than the two drivers that we were racing at the time. So I'm surprised to see the problems he's having. But that's the problem for a racing driver."

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