McLaren Confirm Jaguar Approach for Wurz

McLaren-Mercedes have confirmed that they have received an approach from Jaguar Racing to discuss the possibility of test driver Alexander Wurz replacing under-fire Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia.

22-year old Pizzonia has struggled this year in his debut season in Formula One and was publicly warned last week that his performances have not pleased the Jaguar hierarchy. This weekend's Spanish Grand Prix could be his last event and a spokeswoman for McLaren admitted: "We have been approached by Jaguar. Alexander has a long-term contract with McLaren-Mercedes and we are considering the position."

Pizzonia, known as "Jungle Boy" because of his Amazonian roots, joined Jaguar after a season of testing for the BMW-Williams team but has failed to match the pace of his Australian teammate Mark Webber.

Pizzonia has failed to finish in three of the first four races, crashing out in two, and he has been consistently outqualified by Webber, who has shone in the Jaguar R4 by twice starting from the front three rows of the grid.

Jaguar managing director David Pitchforth, however, backed Pizzonia although he did not confirm the Brazilian would keep his seat after Spain.

"Contrary to the wave of media speculation around us on the subject of Antonio's future he will race this weekend in Barcelona and we will continue to support his development and growth," he said.

"Both Jaguar racing and Antonio share mutual interest in the outcome of his development and both sides have every intention of extracting the maximum from the potential of the R4 package over a race weekend."

Pizzonia gave Jaguar their first race finish at the San Marino Grand Prix nine days ago, but was consistently three quarters of a second slower than Webber's race pace. He excelled on his way to the British Formula Three title in 2000 but struggled over the following two years in Formula 3000 and is likely to be dropped into a test driver role if Wurz is drafted in.

The young Brazilian is determined to prove his racing ability in this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, however, and believes his knowledge of the circuit could see him turn the corner.

"It is important for me to ignore the recent speculation about my position in the team," said Pizzonia. "I need to perform to the best of my ability in Barcelona. I am looking forward to the race because this is the first opportunity I will have this season to race on a circuit where I have already driven a Formula One car."