Rahal unconcerned by Jaguar's testing form

According to today's (Thursday's) Autosport, Rahal claims that there is no cause for concern after driver's Eddie Irvine and Luciano Burti have both failed to set competitive times during the development of the all-new R2 - the car that team top brass hopes will put the Big Cat back on track.

The lack of speed from Jaguar's new car, which was the first of this year's F1 challengers to be launched, has been compounded by the blistering pace of McLaren's MP4-16. The latest offering from the Woking team was launched only last week and has been quick-out-the-box with David Coulthard setting three new lap records at Valencia on successive days.

"I am certainly not expecting us to run with McLaren," said Rahal. "So if they are a little bit faster I am not too dismayed. I think people are making a bit more of all this than there is because of the lap times."

Irvine has finished the last three days at the foot of the Valencia time sheets, almost three seconds off the pace of Coulthard.

"I think you have to look at what the aims of our test programmes are," continued the former CART boss. "We are trying to be realistic to be honest, so we have had our plan and stuck with it."

Jaguar has undergone major restructuring over the winter. New technical director Steve Nichols has joined to replace Gary Anderson and triple world champion Niki Lauda is also on board as the CEO of the newly-created Premier Performance Division, which has been set up to oversee the return to form of the Milton Keynes-based team.

Rahal has been cautious not to overstate what his outfit is capable of in its second year and the key word at the team's launch last month was 'respectability'.

"I guess I'm trying to under-promise and over-deliver," he said. "I am sure we are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we are guarded about our objectives.

"The minute you start making any grandiose statements you are inviting disaster. During recent testing, when we have run new developments, I felt we made progress. We are in reasonable shape at this stage of the game."