Rahal defends his position at Jaguar

Rumours of a rift between Rahal and Jaguar Racing's overlord Niki Lauda have been growing in the last week and the pair are due to meet today, along with Jaguar Cars chairman Wolfgang Reitzle, to decide what the future holds for the management structure of the Milton Keynes-based team.

Sources suggest that Rahal could be shown the door in order to diffuse the situation with Lauda, which came to a head at last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. It was revealed that Rahal, unbeknown to Lauda, offered his number one driver Eddie Irvine to Jordan as a replacement for the sacked Heinz-Harald Frentzen, although the American claimed later that this was done in jest.

Rahal, who took over the team last December, believes he is making progress and says greatly improved results cannot be achieved in such a short space of time.

"I think I am doing a good job," Rahal told Autosport. "The team is starting to come along and I am very optimistic about next year's chassis. When I took on the job, everyone agreed that this was a multi-year programme and this was the year to get our house in order."

He added: "Rome wasn't built in a day and, unfortunately, irrespective of how many years this team has been here, this has been work in progress. It is not a McLaren, Ferrari or Williams yet, but that is our goal. I think next year you will see the real result of this season's efforts."

Despite disagreements between Jaguar's management duo over issues such as the loss of the team's exclusive Cosworth engine deal - the Arrows team will also be supplied next year - and Rahal's failure to sew up a deal with McLaren's technical ace Adrian Newey, Rahal has never criticised Lauda in public.

"Niki is head of the company that owns Jaguar, so he is the boss," said Rahal. "But while there have been rumours of difficulties between us, there haven't been."