Jaguar Under No Illusions Despite Points

Eddie Irvine said Jaguar had no real cause for celebration following his unexpected fourth-place finish at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

In a frank admission, the Northern Irishman said he had only finished in the points because of the spectacular series of crashes and retirements that marred the race and the result should not disguise the fact the car was not yet competitive.

"It was a nice way to start the season but we can't kid ourselves, we're still a long way behind," said Irvine, who finished more than a lap behind race winner Michael Schumacher. "We were very lucky today...but the result doesn't change the fact that we have an enormous amount of work to do.

"There can't be any illusions about how we got this result."

Only eight cars were still running when Schumacher took the checkered flag and Jaguar were one of just two teams, along with Minardi, to have both their cars on the circuit. Pedro de la Rosa, driving the second Jaguar, suffered an electrical fault which kept him off the track for several minutes. He did rejoin the race but finished five laps behind in eighth position.

No Illusions

Jaguar boss Niki Lauda said he was also under no illusions about the team's position.

"We are obviously very pleased with the result and to have scored three points from 19th on the grid is great news for everyone at Jaguar," Lauda said. "Nonetheless, we have a lot of work to do on this car when we get back to England."

Jaguar's bleak prediction that they would be among the tail-enders in this year's Formula One Championship was borne out when they qualified 19th and 20th of the 22 starters. The only drivers they finished ahead of were Malaysia's Minardi pilot Alex Yoong and Japanese rookie Takuma Sato.

Sato had to get special permission to race on Sunday after a bizarre run of bad luck ruined his chances of posting a good enough lap time to meet the qualifying standard. Lauda said the new Jaguar R3 was suffering from a whole range of technical problems. These included a severe lack of aerodynamic downforce which they had not been able to repair because their new wind tunnel was not yet ready.