Lauda: No favours for Jag over Arrows

In an arrangement that commences in 2002, Arrows has secured the same spec CR-3 engines as Jaguar, plus the identical Pi Research-manufactured Pi-VCS electronic package. The latter system integrates engine, clutch, gearbox and differential controls - including launch control and traction control - plus on-car telemetry as a single package.

"If Arrows are quicker than we [Jaguar] are, it's our own fault," Lauda told Autosport.com. "Because then the car's better. I'm driven by competition and not bullshit, this is my simple way of doing it. So to not give an engine or give a bad engine to somebody doesn't mean that we are going to go quicker. This is the way I think. I can come to straight to the point."

Lauda says there will be no half measures for Arrows, and that the positive of having two teams with the same engine outweighs the negative of producing twice the development parts.

"For me it makes no sense to have two types of engine," he said. "I want to develop my own engine by running it in another car at the same time. So if I run one [team] on one engine and the other on the other, it doesn't help me.

"I want to get Cosworth on its own competitive, and with this system, it's easy, because you have four cars running with the same engine, so that reliability, horsepower and all these sorts of things you check in half of the time," he added.

For a full Niki Lauda Q&A, click HERE.