Jaguar Opt for Virtual Car Launch after Job Losses

The Jaguar Formula One team have scrapped plans for a formal launch of their new R4 car and will present it on the internet instead next month.

The team had originally set a date of January 13 for the launch but shelved that after Niki Lauda was replaced as Jaguar Racing head last month.

"With the recent restructuring programme at Jaguar Racing which resulted in around 70 redundancies, we feel that it would be grossly insensitive to be investing large amounts of resource and money at this time into a lavish launch," a team spokesman said today.

Nav Sidhu said the launch would now become a 'virtual' one on January 21, the same day that the 2003 car has its first shakedown test in Barcelona.

"We'll launch the 2003 challenger through the most popular communication tool in the world today - the internet," said Sidhu.

He added that Jaguar were "not trying to be clever or re-write the rulebook" but, with less than nine weeks remaining before the first race of the season in Australia, wanted to concentrate on the development of the car.

Jaguar finished last season seventh overall after extensive work on the poorly performing R3. They have an all-new driver lineup and have yet to announce a replacement for Lauda at the helm.

The team held a remarkably lavish launch on their debut in Formula One in 2000, taking over Lord's cricket ground for the day, but the trend has been toward more low-key presentations.