 Sun: Jaguar Dump Irvine and de la Rosa Thursday October 31st, 2002
Friday's edition said the two would be replaced by Australia's Mark Webber from Minardi and Williams test driver Antonio Pizzonia of Brazil. Irvine, the oldest driver in Formula One at 36, was out of contract at the end of this season. De la Rosa had one year left on his contract at Jaguar and team boss Niki Lauda had previously stated the Spaniard will continue to drive with the team next year. However, recent speculations - now made firm in the Sun - suggest the Ford-owned team will be releasing de la Rosa, who did not score any points for the team since he joined them in 2001, and should that be the case they will have to pay him off. Jaguar's spokesman was unavailable for comment. Irvine has played a guessing game about his future for several months with Jaguar and Jordan seen the most likely teams to employ him next season - if he decided to carry on racing. "This does not really affect my plans for the future," the Sun quoted him as saying. "But if I were a team boss, I would not be happy fielding two inexperienced drivers." Webber, 26, made his Formula One debut in the 2002 season and scored two points. Pizzonia, 22, had a successful one-off test for Jaguar in September. Williams team boss Frank Williams said in September he believed Pizzonia was good enough for Formula One. "He is quick enough certainly and I think a good enough racer to be in Formula One," he said.
Published at 23:51:53 GMT
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Jaguar's Formula One team have released their two drivers, Briton Eddie Irvine and Spain's Pedro de la Rosa, the Sun newspaper reports.
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