Team boss Niki Lauda looking at data monitors. There will be plenty of
number to study this week to make a decision on the future of the R3 (picture Jaguar Cars)
March 17th - Malaysian GP : What's Next ?
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No points, one DNF for Jaguar Racing in round two of the Formula One Championship... hardly a surprise considering the pace of the R3 so far this year.
Starting from near the back of the grid, both cars managed to gain track positions early in the race but Eddie Irvine was involved in an incident with the Minardi of Malyasian Alex Yoong who clipped the front wing of the Jaguar while being lapped forcing Irvine back to the pit for a lengthy nose change. After rejoining the race, Irvine lost his clutch because of an hydraulic failure and was forced to retire on lap 31.
Pedro de la Rose went on to finish the race in 10th place, at least showing the reliability of the car despite the grueling conditions; high temperatures and humidity forced the retirement of others due to engine failures including both MacLaren Mercedes.
The next week is going to be crucial for the rest of the season with Jaguar Racing conducting tests in Barcelona where both the R2 and the R3 will be evaluated to compare data and make a decision. The team confirmed that should last year's car prove to be significantly faster, it will use it for a few races while the design flaws plaguing the new R3 are found and fixed. However, the R2 can not be ready in time for the Brazilian GP March 31st because of modifications needed including converting the electronic power steering to the new mechanical unit needed to comply with new 2002 FIA regulations.
Earlier in the week end, following his worst ever qualifying session, Eddie Irvine suggested he might not be willing to wait forever and could give up on Jaguar Racing unless progress is made. While he didn't state any time frame or what his plans would be, the 36 year old veteran commented that making millions driving at the back of the grid was not what he wanted to do although following the race he confirmed his confidence that Niki Lauda and Gunther Steiner will be able to turn things around.
March 15th - Jaguar Racing : No Improvement in Qualifying
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While very little was expected from the Jaguar drivers ahead of the 60 minute qualifying session at the Sepang circuit, the sight of both Jaguars buried near the back of the grid is sad indeed. Pedro De LaRosa was slightly faster than Eddie Irvine, respectively 17th and 20th, outqualified by nearly every team except Minardi.
With no testing on the troublesome R3 since the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, there was no reason for the car to be faster in Malaysia. This was confirmed by team boss Nikki Lauda who only mentioned a few new parts being tested during Friday practice on cars that were otherwise identical to those races in Australia.
Unless the R3 survives another first corner pile up and few of the competitors make it to the checkered flag, Sunday's race is just something to go through for the team until a decision is made next week. Jaguar Racing has confirmed it will run both the R3 and last year's R2 in testing at Barcelona next week to make a decision on the future of the R3. If it turns out to be significantly slower then the team will choose to race the older car in the next few races while they try to fix the problem with the R3 but the difference has to be at least half a second a lap for this to be worth the trouble of converting the power steering to 2002 rules and electricals to match the 2002 engine.
During a press conference, Lauda announced that the major element missing in the team was just about to come on line. Testing and calibration of Jaguar Racing new wind tunnel in underway and ahead of schedule and the team should be able to start doing development work at the beginning of April. Currently, the team must use a Ford wind tunnel in California which creates logistical problems because of distances and time zones...
Lauda also dismissed reports that Ford is considering pulling the plug on program, saying all of the team's contract are set until the end of the 2004 season and he's received personal assurances from Bill Ford himself that Ford was in F1 for the long run.
While Jaguar was struggling, the other Cosworth powered team fared a little better with Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows qualifying a full second faster in 11th for Heinz Harald Frentzen, using the same engine as Jaguar...
March 8th - Jaguar Racing : Little hope ahead of Malaysia
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With no testing for Jaguar Racing between the first two round or the Formula One Championship, the team has little hope for success in Malaysia. Following the tough week end in Australia, the cars and equipment were flown directly to Kula Lumpur preventing any testing on the R3.
In addition to luck, reliability was the only ray of sunshine for Jaguar in Australia and the team hope to capitalize on this to maximize its use of the two hour long practice sessions on Friday to evaluate the car and try to get the most out of it. That is of course if weather conditions remain stable during the day, something which didn't happen in Australia...
Team boss Niki Lauda summed it all up " Rain or sun, I don’t care, but as long as the weather conditions are not variable. We need stable conditions to be able to judge properly the limits of the Jaguar R3 and only then will we be able to make definitive conclusions about the car."
Neither drivers are upbeat about the upcoming race, despite Eddie Irvine having won for Ferrari in 99 and picked up the first point for Jaguar in 2000 with a 6th place finish.
The Malaysian Grand Prix is one of the new race on the 17 race calendar and this will only be the 4th visit of the F1 Circus to the new Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur. The track is among the most modern and probably the safest with big run off areas; it's also very wide which makes passing possible in different corners.
March 5th - Jaguar Racing is considering its options
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The 3 points collected in Australia made the "morning after" a little less bitter for Jaguar Racing but the team is reportedly evaluating its options for the season knowing very well that Irvine's 4th place was pure luck in a race where only 8 cars finished out of 22. The fact remains that both Jaguars only qualified in 20th and 21st positions.
The problems with the new R3 could be so severe that, according to British press reports, the team is considering using last years car for the 2002 season. No decision has been made yet but it could be a quick solution to solve the problems plaguing the R3, both with the aerodynamics but also with an apparent rigidity problem in the chassis. While the R2 was not exactly a strong contender in 2001, it has been developped in testing over the winter break and was often faster than the R3.
The team faces one major hurdle with the need to adapt the R3 new mechanical power steering to the R2 since 2002 regulations prohibits the use of electronic power steering.
No decisions has been made and more testing is scheduled before the next race, the Malaysian Grand Prix on march 16th.
Also according to reports published in the British press, rumors of Ford pulling the plug on Jaguar's Formula One efforts are premature due to the many on going sponsoring contracts, some in effect until the end of the 2004 season. It also appears that Nikki Lauda position at the head of the team is secure with the design of the R3 and its problems being born under Bobby Rahal's watch...
March 4th - Australian GP : The Mountain is still there to climb !
Ever since Jaguar Racing's new contender took to the track in January, the 2002 Formula One season didn't look good for Jaguar with the new car as much as 3 seconds off the pace in testing. Most of it was caused by wind tunnel calculation errors and a design flaw in the front wing which led to the resignation of the team Technical Director Steve Nichols.
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Meanwhile, as Jaguar was trying to correct its design flaws, other teams were hard at work improving on already viable designs, sorting the bugs out and increasing their advantage...
When the light went green and the 60 minute timer started clicking in Melbourne on Saturday March 2nd for the first qualifying session on the 2002, the most optimistic scenarios would have Jaguar still stuck in the middle of the grid, battling with other mid pack teams like BAR and Renault.
Unfortunately, things turned out far worst than expected with the two Jaguars ending up on the next to last row, beaten by the new Toyotas and even by one of the Minardis. While conditions in qualifying were tricky with rain moving in 25 minutes into the session essentially ruining any further attempt to improve, they were the same for all the competitors and being over 4 seconds slower than the front runners is a huge amount in the world of Formula One; a mountain to climb...
Worst, both Jaguars were outqualified by both of Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows, powered by the same Cosworth engine...
On race day, Sunday, the weather cleared up with dry conditions setting the scene for what should have been a less chaotic day. Unfortunately for 8 of the 22 competitors, a spectacular accident at the first corner meant the day was over. Thankfully no one was injured not even Ralf Schumacher despite being launched in the air after his BMW-Williams plowed in the back of the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichelo.
The disastrous grid position of the Jaguars turned out to be a blessing, giving them plenty of time to avoid the pile up and by the time the smoked cleared and the remaining cars were lined up behind the safety car, both Jaguars were in the points, in 5th and 6th.
After the restart, they did a good job of keeping their positions but Pedro de la Rosa encountered some electrical problems forcing the mechanics to change an electronic component putting him two laps down. Reliability, and luck, was with Eddie Irvine who was able to bring his R3 across the finish line in 4th place although one lap down from the leader, out of 8 cars finishing.
This 4th place nets Jaguar 3 important point in the championship, which will come in handy at the end of the season since in Formula One portions of the broadcasting rights go to the teams based on their ranking in the constructor championship.
However, despite this 4th place Team Boss Nikki Lauda has no illusion commenting after the race "we have a lot of work to do on this car when we get back to England."
With only two weeks before the next race in Malysia, this leaves very little time to make significant improvements to the car to extract the missing performance and find the downforce that's missing and is critical to good lap times.
No doubt that the team is looking forward to new wind tunnel which will come on line within weeks and which will be much needed to solve the aerodynamic problems and help Jaguar Racing climb its 4 second mountain...
Feb. 4th - Jaguar Racing Tech director Steve Nichols resigns !
With only four weeks to go until
the first Grand Prix of the 2002 season, Jaguar Racing Technical Director Steve Nichols
has resigned for the team effective immediately. Nichols who had been appointed by Bobby
Rahal only 14 months ago will be replaced by Managing Director Gunther Steiner until a
replacement is found.
An official team statement read that "there is a need for the design and the
development activities of the company to receive fresh impetus and direction" but
most link his sudden departure with the lack of performance suffered by the new R3 since
its lauch a month ago. The car has been up to 2 seconds off the pace which has been
tracked to a problem in the design of the front wing, something the team is scambling to
fix.
The team's testing schedule was changed to accomodate additional straight line downforce
testing when it became apparent that serious mistakes in wind tunnel calculations were to
blame for the lack of performance.
Feb. 3rd - Rocketsports XKR first in class at Daytona !
With a class win in GTS class, Paul
Gentilozzi's Rocketsport racing XKR brought the Jaguar name back to Victory Circle at
Daytona for the first time sine 1991. Gentilozzi (overall winner in 94 driving a Nissan)
and co drivers Brian Simo, Scott Pruett and Michael Lauer dominated their class in
practice and qualifying, and led most of the grueling 24 hours.
Their 5th place overall finish is also a great result having beaten many faster SRP
Prototypes in the process. Overall winner was the Judd powered Doran/Lista Racing Dallara
co driven by CART star Max Papis.
A minor scare occurred in the last half hour of the race, when Gentilozzi had to pit twice
because of a vibration, first changing the rear wheels and then replacing the rear left
hub. Even though he enjoyed a comfortable lead over the second place GTS competitor, the ,
Gentilozzi wanted to have the car in top shape for the last few laps, refusing to take it
slow and limp across the finish line.
Based on the tube frame chassis and carbon fiber body shell Trans Am car that won the 2001
Championship, modifications for the Rolex 24 at Daytona included a larger V8 engine,
larger 18 x 18 BBS wheels and various equipment modifications including on board airjacks
and headlights.
Experience was key to the success not only on mechanical side with Rocketsports car
building and preparation experience but also with the driver line up. Gentilozzi has won 3
TransAm championships, Brian Simo (his main rival in Trans Am) has won 1 and Scott Pruett
2. Pruett was also co driver of the winning Jaguar XJR12 in 1991.
Jan. 23rd - Testing times in testing for Jaguar's R3
When compared to other teams, the same 2 to 3 seconds show up on the time sheets. Winter testing times are not always significant but the fact that cars like new 2002 Sauber have been fast "out of the box" is a clear indication that something is not right on the R3. Sauber, the Swiss team powered by last year Ferrari engine finished 4th in the constructor championship in 2001 despite operating on a budget much smaller than Jaguar's. Other new cars like the McLaren Mercedes have also been fast immediately after their first shake down.
The R3 problems are serious enough that the team cancelled a test session at Barcelona Jan 24th choosing to stop at the French track of Lurcy Lewis instead where a very long straight away allows engineers to run series of test on a car pure speed aerodynamic. A team spokesperson denied that a major revision of the new car is underway but conceeded that it was necessary to first understand the problems experienced with the car's front wing. Newly appointed test driver Andre Lotterer was scheduled to be a the wheel.
The 2002 season is critical for Jaguar as it will be the 3rd season since the team was created after Ford bought the Stewart Racing Team. With the Ford Motors Company facing mounting losses in tougher economic conditions, team boss Niki Lauda's credibility on the line and the new wind tunnel, results must come.. or else...
Jan. 13th - A Monkey can drive ...
A few months ago, Jaguar Racing boss and triple World Champion Niki Lauda draw some
attention by saying that with all the electronic aids introduced since his 1985
retirement, even a monkey could drive a modern F1 car...
Well, Niki probably wish he could swallow his words after drivig the R2 at Valencia
January 13th... a private test in which he scored 2 spins in the spanish gravel traps and
recorded a best time of 15 seconds slower. Yes, 15 seconds not 1.5 seconds...
Both of his spin took place at the same spot, turn 2, early in the session. Lauda
explained the spins by saying he was following the braking point advice of de la Rosa and
pointed out that at least, he entered the turn at the speed... only he didn't make it out
of the corner. The car wasn't damaged and simply towed back to the pits. In subsequent
laps, 8 timed laps altogether, Lauda kept it on the track and was also able to try out the
new lauch control system.
The goal of his test wasn't to compete with regular drivers Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la
Rosa but to get a feeling of what his drivers encounter and experience when on the track.
Following the test, Lauda explained that these few laps will help him understand what the
drivers talk about during meeting and debriefing with engineers especially on software
related issues.
Talking to journalists after the session, the 52 year old confirmed that he had no
intention to come out of retirement and that his only preparation for this session was
fewer cigarettes the week before...
No reactions yet to Lauda's time from Formula One's
most outspoken driver Eddie Irvine...
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