Pedro de la Rosa to Jaguar?

Pedro de la Rosa looks set to join the Jaguar team this year but not as a replacement for any of the current drivers.

According to our sources in Spain the rumour Pedro may sign for the team in some capacity is quite serious. Joan Viladelprat of Prost has confirmed it to a Spanish journalist.

The rumour makes some sense Ford is investing a lot of money and after last year the Jaguar team needs to make strides forward. Luciano Burti is also inexperienced and unproved and teammate Eddie Irvine talks far too much and throughout testing this year has been outpaced by Burti. Irvine has also made no secret of the fact he doesn't like testing and as such Pedro could well find himself in some sort of test/development/reserve driver role.

Pedro in the background would also serve as a threat should Irvine or Burti prove uncompetitive.

Rumours Pedro may drive for the Jaguar team replacing Eddie Irvine have been dismissed. A spokesman for Jaguar said: "There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that Eddie Irvine will be replaced this season. The driver line-up for 2001 will be the same with Eddie Irvine and Luciano Burti."

Jaguar arrived in F1 last year with a blaze of publicity and then went on to have a year from hell scoring only four points. Already this year Irvine has said the new car is "too slow" and that the technical team is "understaffed".

De la Rosa was released by Arrows last month and was believed to have signed a two-year test-driving deal with Prost, which included the promise of a race drive next season. He nows seems to have changed his mind preferring the Jaguar-Cosworth to the Prost-Ferrari.

The Jaguar press office refused to comment on the exact truth of these reports saying that an announcement would be made later in the week. However it is thought that Pedro will sign a three year contract with Jaguar testing in 2001 followed by a race seat in 2002 and 2003. Watch this space for confirmation.