Tomas Scheckter Fired from Jaguar

Tomas Scheckter, son of former world champion Jody, has been dismissed as the Jaguar Formula One team's test driver, a team spokesman said on Saturday. He said the immediate termination of the 20-year-old South African's contract followed a recent court appearance.

Scheckter was fined by a court in Northampton, a town not far from Jaguar's Milton Keynes headquarters, after pleading guilty to kerb crawling (soliciting a prostitute). A statement made by the team today said: "Mr Scheckter, who was sub-contracted to work for the team in the role of development driver, recently appeared in court and it is to matters concerning this appearance that the team and the Jaguar Racing board is left with no alternative but to terminate the relationship."

The termination of the driver's contract leaves Jaguar without an official test driver after Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa moved up to the race team to replace Brazilian Luciano Burti. Jaguar spokesman Nav Sidhu said options remained open on the test driver slot but De la Rosa and Briton Eddie Irvine were likely to take over most of the development work.

Jaguar's current Formula Three drivers Andre Lotterer of Germany, who won a race at Donington Park last weekend, and Australian James Courtney might also get a chance.