Irvine pins F1 future on revised R3

Irvine, who at 36 is the oldest driver in F1, will test the radical car for the first time at Barcelona on Thursday. Featuring a raft of aerodynamic revisions, the new car is designed to transform the team's fortunes, which have floundered since Irvine took a lucky fourth in the opening race of the season.

"If this car comes out of the box and flies, I'm going to want to stay in Formula 1," Irvine told Reuters. "If it doesn't, it doesn't really bode well for the future does it?"

Test driver Andre Lotterer will shake the new car down at Ford's Lommel test track in Belgium today (Tuesday), but its first real test will come when it goes head-to-head with the opposition at Barcelona later in the week. If everything goes to plan, the revised Jaguar will make its debut at the British GP on July 7.

Since the launch of the R3 in January, Jaguar has parted company with technical director Steve Nichols, opened its own wind tunnel and brought in a number of new design personnel. Irvine believes these changes could produce a dramatic turn around in competitiveness.

"I'm not thinking about doesn't. I'm thinking will. I'm thinking this package is going to be good, we're going to turn up there (at Silverstone) and surprise people," he said.

"And we're going to enjoy surprising people. If you look where Benetton came from at the beginning of last year to where they ended up, we have the potential to achieve that.

"We've just got to be optimistic. There's no point in saying 'Oh, well, we've got to be cautious, it may not be that good'...I'm going to Barcelona hoping it's going to be good and we'll see."