Lauda delight at seventh place

"It's been an extremely tough season and one that we have managed to salvage something out of given the horrendous issues we began with on the Jaguar R3," said Lauda. "To have finished the season in seventh place in just reward for the incredible hard work that has gone into correcting the problems we started the season with.

"Finishing the year in sixth place would have been a dream, but not really reflective of the reality. We are now all focusing on the Jaguar R4."

Lead driver Eddie Irvine, who scored all eight of the team's points in 2003, was also pleased with the progress of the team during the season despite a lacklustre ninth place in the Japanese Grand Prix.

"It was always an ambitious target to prevent the Hondas from scoring points today and they took what they deserved," said Irvine. "Today was a tough challenge, particularly when it came to passing anyone. There was simply no grip out there, and this made life very tough indeed.

"Seventh place in the championship is an improvement on last year and that's about as much as anyone could have asked for given the shocking problems we began with."