Launch of Jaguar's 2002 Formula One challenger, the R3 - January 2002
story by Shane O' Donoghue, pictures by Adam Jefferson
The reason Bobby Rahal departed the Jaguar Racing team was due to his own workload which included commitments in the US. No other top F1 team principal tried to do so much, according to Niki Lauda, Jaguar Racing's Team Principal for the foreseeable future. As we all know; if you cut a pie into too many pieces it crumbles. The Jaguar Racing team was not as strong as was thought in 2001.
Things should be different for Jaguar in 2002. Though every team says that at the launch! The esteemed Mr. Lauda is a convincing person though. He himself is going to drive the new Jaguar R3 so that he can understand a modern F1 car. 1985 was the last time he drove such a beast, and in the 17 years since, the cars have changed massively. You don't see Ron Dennis giving it a go so that he can further understand his team's strengths and his drivers concerns in the car itself.
In fact, the launch in Milton Keynes felt as if it was biased towards Lauda's personal ambition and drive. The engineers and drivers all commented on it. Guenther Steiner (Managing Director of Jaguar Racing) spoke about serious gains on all aspects of the car, but, realistically, they will not know until the season starts in Australia. Eddie Irvine said as much, and not much else. Pedro de la Rosa came across as keen to get back into the car, joking that the winter break was so long he had to get married! 2002 will be Pedro's first full season with Jaguar Racing, and you can tell he is looking forward to it. Jaguar expects great things from him, but, when pushed, Lauda expressed his faith in Eddie Irvine as the number one driver.
Personally, I'd be surprised to see Jaguar much further up the grid than they were, but with their new wind tunnel facility coming on stream, they have as much of a chance as anyone, especially for 2003.
Still, the list of teams with big money and high hopes is increasing. Along with the current top three (Ferrari, McLaren and Williams), for 2002 we have the all-new Toyota team, who will be very keen to beat Honda's duo (BAR and Honda), not to mention the Renault outfit.
There is another twist, to keep Jaguar on their toes. Cosworth Racing are supplying them with 'works' engines, but they will also supply engines to Arrows, albeit as 'customer-specification'. Niki Lauda did say that Cosworth are treating the operations as separate, so that they are not stretched. However, this will certainly put the pressure on Jaguar to at least beat Tom Walkinshaw's team.
Niki Lauda told us an interesting story about his son going racing. He categorically said no way, so his sons ignored him and went ahead anyway. Lauda admitted that he is happy that he is not also responsible for his son's career. It strikes me that Niki will be one pie not to crumble.
Just click on the thumbnails to view a high-resolution image.
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