Irvine Unconvinced by Ford's Commitment to Jaguar

Eddie Irvine has hinted that he will leave Jaguar at the end of the season after insisting Ford's decision to offer "more significant" backing to the team will make little difference to their performance.

The Ulsterman, who has adopted an even more laid back approach to life than usual as the season comes to a close, is thought not to have signed a deal to race with any team next year.

And although motoring giants Ford confirmed on Friday that they will make a long-term commitment to Jaguar Racing and Formula One, it seems that the promise of improvements may have come too late to convince Irvine to stay.

"I have heard that three or four times since I joined Jaguar," Irvine said of Ford's latest promise. "Moving up the grid is dependant a lot on what other people do, not just yourself."

It is understood that the extra commitment from Ford does not involve any more financial backing and Irvine, who was unaware of the details of the announcement, suggested the team would struggle unless it increased its budget.

"If you have got people spending $200 million and they are as well organised or better organised than you and you are spending $100 million you ain't going to beat them," he said. "I don't understand anything. More commitment? So there was not enough commitment before. I have no idea about that. It is really not my sphere of activity."

Irvine has remained candid over recent weeks in an effort to make his future plans a secret but outwardly he now seems like a man who could not care less about the future of Jaguar beyond this season's final race in Japan next month.

The team have had to re-design most of this year's car after Irvine's lucky fourth place on its debut in Australian was followed by a disastrous run of races which saw the team fighting with Minardi at the back of the grid.

Irvine said he has not seen the design and development of next year's Jaguar machine because he has "no interest" in it, and added: "After a start like this year, how could you ever be confident again about a new car?"

He has been in discussions with Jordan, who will also use Ford engines next year, about a possible drive in 2003 and it is now thought that he will either join the Silverstone-based team or leave the sport.

But for now, Irvine is confident that if he is going out, he will do so with a bang after claiming recent improvements to his Jaguar have moved it into the same league as McLaren-Mercedes.

"I think we are looking strong," he said. "I don't see how we can beat Williams and I don't see how we can beat Ferrari, but I think we can actually beat McLaren."

The Ulsterman admitted there were "a couple of bits" on the car that may have created a jump in performance but claimed that neither he nor the Jaguar engineers could understand why they have suddenly become so quick.

He put a smile on the top Ford bosses' faces when he finished second, just half a second slower than World Champion Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, in Friday's practice. He has finished in the points in the last two races and is now brimming with confidence.

"We seem to be going a lot better than I believed we could but no-one really knows why," he said.

"It is a huge turn-around from the back row of the grid to qualifying fifth at Monza and going to the podium is a big turn-around but whenever the basics are so badly wrong it is quite easy to turn it around."