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Pizzonia Unhappy with Jaguar's Antics

Jaguar driver Antonio Pizzonia has criticised his Jaguar bosses for telling the world about their dissatisfaction with his performances before telling him – and asked them to keep things secret from now on.

Jaguar driver Antonio Pizzonia has criticised his Jaguar bosses for telling the world about their dissatisfaction with his performances before telling him â€" and asked them to keep things secret from now on.

Pizzonia, who retired from last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix when his stationary Jaguar was hit by the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen at the start, has had a difficult first five races in Formula One.

He has now been told his seat is safe and he has asked managing director David Pitchforth and Ford's Premier Performance Division chief Tony Purnell to keep quiet over internal matters in the future.

"If we have a problem we should close the doors and talk about it because they never complained about anything to me so it was a big surprise to me when I saw the news and rumours," said Pizzonia.

"It's much better to race without this pressure and I'm glad it's finished now. I had so many problems with the car at the first few races that meant I couldn't do my job but now I'm looking forward to the rest of the season."

Jaguar approached McLaren to discuss the possibility of recruiting test driver Alexander Wurz from them as a replacement for the struggling Pizzonia after the San Marino Grand Prix. They revealed their plans in the British press before telling Pizzonia and faced widespread criticism from established members of the Formula One paddock for putting pressure on the highly-rated Brazilian.

"The support I had from the paddock, some drivers, teams and the press was very good and perhaps this made the team realise what they were trying to do wasn't very good," said Pizzonia. "But they came to me said they made a mistake and said sorry, let's carry on, which is good. I just want to work with the team, hopefully have some more luck, and start scoring some points."

Pizzonia's Australian teammate Mark Webber, who scored his first point for the team at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, said the speculation had not affected his performance. But he admitted it was not something Jaguar should have allowed as they concentrate on fighting their way up the grid and said: "It's a bit more bullshit for the team to have on their shoulders.

"But it didn't detract from our performance because I've pretty much tried to stay out of it. There has been loads of stuff going down and that's up to Antonio and Jaguar, I just kept my nose out of it."

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