Jaguar confident after breakthrough

Eddie Irvine claimed Jaguar's first podium finish

By BBC Sport Online's Andrew Benson in Monaco

Jaguar are optimistic that they are finally on the right track towards Formula One success after scoring their first Grand Prix podium finish.

Eddie Irvine finished third for the Ford-owned team in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday after the most competitive showing in Jaguar's short F1 history.

"That's a great result for everybody at Jaguar," Irvine said. "We still have a way to go, but I'm delighted."

Jaguar survived a scare after the race when the stewards impounded their tyres amid fears that the mandatory grooves had worn away too much. They were later told there was no problem.

Irvine: "To do as well as we do with the facilities we have is amazing"

Irvine's result was a huge step forward. Until Monaco they had qualified and raced in the midfield at every Grand Prix this season.

This is Jaguar's second year in F1, after Ford bought the Stewart team in 1999 and changed their name for 2000.

The improvement in performance came after Jaguar introduced a new aerodynamic package aimed at solving a handling problem that has afflicted the team since the beginning of last season.

But there were conflicting stories as to how much of the improvement was down to the new parts, and how much to Irvine's abilities around Monaco, where he has always been good.

Irvine said it was about 50-50 between him and the car. He described the aerodynamic package as "a huge step - in all the years of my career I never had a step [in car performance from race to race] as big as this".

But his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa struggled all weekend and said the improvement was more down to Irvine.

And the Briton played down expectations of Jaguar for the next race in Canada.

"We now need to see whether this works from Canada onwards," Irvine said.

"If so, we will have cracked a major nut.

"We should be better in Canada as well, but that track is all about [aerodynamic] efficiency and our efficiency is not very good.

"We [also] have a problem with the car's handling. There is a problem with the steering that makes it difficult to drive. It happened here in the race and in qualifying."

Should do better?

Jaguar have been heavily criticised in the last 18 months. The feeling in F1 is that they should be doing better with the huge resources of Ford behind them.

But Jaguar counter they are suffering because they do not have their own wind tunnel, so their ability to do crucial aerodynamic development is compromised.

Jaguar say they need their own wind tunnel

According to Irvine, the team has a long way to go before it operates as an effective unit

"We deserve to have the bad time we had because we were so badly organised and our infrastructure was a mess," he said.

"But to do as well as we do with the facilities we have is amazing - the guys in the factory must be doing something right."

Team boss Bobby Rahal admitted there was much work to do before Jaguar can be where they want to be - up with McLaren and Ferrari.

"This was a real morale booster for the team," he said. "We have faced many critics in the past few weeks and I hope today's result proves that we are making progress.

"The magnitude of the task ahead of us cannot be overstated and the challenge now is to turn this major podium into consistency.

"Jaguar Racing is not here to make up the numbers and our long-term goal is to win the world championship.

"This takes time, resources, stability and consistency. Taking third place alongside the Ferraris at Monaco is one small step in a very long road ahead of us."