Rogue Profile of Jaguar

“I knew that this was going to be a hard race, but I am disappointed to have retired,” explained de la Rosa. “Our reliability to date has been very good and it is frustrating to have exited the race with a mechanical problem. Having finished the first three races, however, a retirement was on the books at some point, I suppose.”

“It certainly was not the best weekend we’ve had. I knew that we were going to struggle with this circuit as the temperatures are never as high here as we would like, but given our reliability record, I did not expect to retire,” Eddie said.

“After having examined the results of this further analysis, the stewards decided to delete all qualifying times of the driver,” the statement read.

“At a circuit like this, you cannot afford to come under- equipped and our aero package isn’t capable of taking us any further right now,” Irvine said.” Our new team of aerodynamicists have quite a challenge on their hands and coupled with our new windtunnel, we now expect to take a corrective course of action. As today’s race proved, we do not have the pace to score points with. I pushed as hard as I could today and it still got me nowhere. In the end, a hydraulic problem put an end to my race.”

“Michael Schumacher held me up on my first run, but my second run was clean. I lost most of the session while the team addressed the gearbox oil pump issue and because of this, I missed out on two flying laps which would probably have taken me a little further up the grid. Given the pressure at the time, the team did an excellent job of getting me back out before the end of the session and let’s now hope we can make something of this tomorrow,” said Irvine.

“A frustrating end to our Canadian Grand Prix, but that’s motor racing. Everything was going to plan until the pit stop when we noticed the increasing temperature readouts. We had no choice at that stage but to carry on, but in the end it proved to be a terminal problem when I lost drive on lap 42,” Irvine explained.

“That was a very difficult race to contest, but no more than I expected. This is a very tough circuit and places maximum demand on aerodynamic capabilities – something we have not mastered yet with this car,” Irvine said. “I started well and from 17th on the grid, I managed to force myself into 14th. Our heavy fuel load meant that we were sitting targets for the others on a two-stopper but in all honestly, there was very little we could do out there today. I also suffered as I entered the pit lane for my pit stop. On entry into the pitlane, the car stepped out on me and spun, which cost me some time. All in all, a weekend to forget.”

“Given that Eddie has qualified in a superb 9th place, I am very disappointed with my qualifying session. There is very little to add to what Niki has already said. My race car developed a hydraulic pressure loss and even though the T-car was set- up for me, it developed a series of problems, which eventually prevented me from improving on my first timed lap,” de la Rosa said.

De la Rosa: “The car felt very good, the best it has been all year. But it is disappointing that the one time the car is good we end up having problems.”

“That probably looked a lot more spectacular than it actually felt from inside the car. All I remember feeling is that the rear of the car just snapped at what must have been around 310kph. Luckily, it happened at the best place to have a failure on this circuit and the car simply slid into the gravel. Up until that point, I was really enjoying the race and the charge towards Jenson Button in 6th place,” Irvine said. “I was catching Jenson and given that he had another stop to make, a precious point could have been possible here.”

Mark Webber’s home race came to a disappointing end. On lap sixteen he had to
pull off the track with a rear suspension failure after climbing into a podium
challenging fifth place. Unfortunately for Webber his car failed before he could
mange to get it all the way off the track and the race stewards would have to
deploy the safety car for the second time in the race. Webber was doing well;
two home races, two very memorable results; pain and ecstasy in equal measure.

"To have retired from fifth place at my home race is a little disappointing
but I remain positive because of the clear potential we showed today. Up until
race day, it has been very difficult to get a crystal clear position of where
we are relative to the competition because of the different strategies teams have
employed on tyres and fuels," Mark said.

On lap fifty-three, both Jaguar’s Antonio Pizzonia and Jordan’s Giancarlo Fisichella
were forced out of the race due to technical problems but at least Fisichella
was spared the walk back to the pits. Pizzonia would have enjoyed his perambulation.
It was his first Grand Prix and at least he was getting the full experience!

After two pit stops, Antonio had settled into repeatable twelfth place but
like his teammate, he was forced to stop with a suspension failure. Both Pizzonia
and Webber had been super-aggressive but still, it was worrying that both Jaguars
experienced the same failure.

"I am disappointed on one hand about not finishing but encouraged by the
potential of the Jaguar R4. There has been a lot of information to take on-board
all weekend and as a rookie, it’s been a case of understanding everything quickly.
I could certainly have done with more track time in the build-up to the race and
this would probably have contributed to a better qualifying position but that’s
motor racing," Antonio said. "I enjoyed the race and found the
performance of the car quite pleasing, although we can do much better. There is
a fair deal of untapped development in the Jaguar R4 and that’s the aim from here
on. A long, busy and in the end, disappointing end to my race weekend but this
mustn’t overshadow the potential of our racecar. Mechanical failures of the kind
we suffered today can be fixed, no problem, but the fact that we have clearly
seen the pace of the Jaguar R4 is the biggest thing to take away from Melbourne."

"The new one-lap qualifying certainly lived up to the spectacle that it
promised but it’s fair to say that our car was better than the drivers today.
Both Mark and Antonio made mistakes during their qualifying runs and while we
are disappointed not to have done better, we walk away encouraged and pleased
with the performance of the Jaguar R4. With another qualifying session tomorrow
and the race on Sunday, it is futile to read too much into today’s performance,
albeit the honest admission of our drivers mistakes."

It was Antonio Pizzonia’s first time at the Sepang circuit and coming into qualifying
his efforts to learn the track had been hampered by fuel pick-up problems in private
testing and Friday’s single practice session, a problem that dogged teammate Webber
too.

Jaguar’s concerns coming into Friday’s qualifying session as an embarrassing
reoccurrence of the problem caused a delay in the starting of Pizzonia’s engine
and he missed his allotted start time and as a result was destined to be first
on the track in Saturday’s critical session.

"A disappointing start to the weekend. I managed to get over 40 laps
under my belt this morning before qualifying and got used to the track quite quickly.
The Sepang circuit is very wide and offers a driver so many choices when it comes
to entering corners. I like the circuit but it takes time to fully exploit the
varying lines on offer to a driver," Pizzonia said. "With that
in mind, I was obviously looking forward to qualifying but lady luck went against
me today. The team is investigating the cause of the start-up issue that cost
me my qualifying slot. I think I missed it by around five seconds but under the
new rules, it was five seconds too late and we paid the price. Looking ahead to
tomorrow, we will focus our efforts to strategy and in particular, race preparation.
As we saw with Mark in Melbourne, you don’t necessarily have to start at the front
of the grid to end up racing with the front-runners under the new rules and strategies.
We’ll do our homework and hope that our approach isn’t compromised by the problems
we suffered today."

Mark Webber’s race ended on lap thirty-five when he pulled into the Jaguar garage
after his car had developed an oil consumption problem. Although Webber must have
been disappointed, it was a sensible thing for the team to do given that oil loss
could have significantly damaged the car.

"Disappointing, yes, but there is a lot to be encouraged about when
it comes to the pace of our race car. The fuel pick-up problem that has plagued
us all weekend came and went throughout my race but nonetheless, the speed and
balance were very good given the fuel strategy we employed," Mark said.
"I managed to squeeze my way through the first corner incident and then began
pushing as hard as I could. The Michelin tyre worked very well today and we could
have got points from this race today – even after the delay in the pit-lane after
my first pit stop. That probably cost me around 30 seconds but once back out,
the performance of the car shone through, albeit until lap 35 when we had no choice
but to call it a day. The potential of this car is clear and we must remain calm,
get our heads down and get on with the task of tapping into the car’s true capability."

Car problems plagued Antonio Pizzonia all weekend and they were set to continue
into the race. When the Jaguar mechanics attempted to start the Brazilian’s engine
in the pits (so that he could make his way to the dummy gird) there were problems.
It proved to be a sign of things to come.

At the start of the race the Jaguar failed to respond and it’s engine stalled,
leaving Pizzonia stranded on the gird. Within seconds, a swarm of mechanics had
descended on the stricken car to retrieve it to the pit-lane where the engine
fired up, allowing Pizzonia to continue, abet one lap down.

"The bad news from today is obvious but the good news is that a Jaguar
has reached the chequered flag for the first time this season!" Antonio
said. "My race was effectively over at the start though because of a launch-control
problem. I simply couldn’t get the system to engage and the team is looking into
why. Given that I started the race from the pitlane one lap down, I was in no
position to make an impact on the race but finishing was very important from a
reliability-test perspective. We have a test next week in Mugello and we’ll focus
on correcting some of this weekend’s issues prior to the Spanish GP."

Just when it seemed he had left his troubles behind his R4′ drive shaft shattered
and he coasted into the pits, his race run.