Rahal critical of Irvine.

Jaguar boss Bobby Rahal has criticised Eddie Irvine for his recent comments when the outspoken playboy said the new Jaguar was "too slow" and the technical team was "under staffed."

Rahal told the British press: "I talked to him about it and said he needed to contribute. His commitment to testing has been fantastic but I think he (Irvine) was trying to tweak us a bit so we know what we ought to be doing for him. I don't know whether that is his way of motivating people. Maybe he thinks you motivate a team by criticising it but I have never found that is a positive way of motivating people."

He added: "I don't for one moment believe we are near the front of the grid but we are not that bad, either. We have been working on reliability so we don't have a repeat of the nightmare start we had to last season."

"Morale was lower than low when I arrived here at the end of last year and it is not difficult to understand why. Raising morale is tough because when morale is low, cynicism in high. My first objective was to convince people here their talents are worthwhile and they were valuable to the team. We are working too hard to lose."