Eddie insists - 'I am not lazy'.

Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine has said he is fed up with people saying he is a lazy ba****d and that this is far from the truth.

Irvine told British newspaper The Daily Telegraph: "It's such incredible fiction. Honestly, J K Rowling better watch out. She's got someone else going for the Booker prize!"

He added talking in Spain during the recent Valencia test: "Well the 'lazy bastard' is in the middle of a four-day test at Valencia. It's comical. Look at how much testing I've done in the last two years. I have tested every winter, all winter, ever since I came to Jaguar."

"Compare that to Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen or Jacques Villeneuve. I've done more tests than any other team leader. In 24 races I have only been outqualified by a team-mate three times and once was, in all truth, because of traffic."

"This year we know our car is not quick enough, and there is no magic wand to make it go quicker. There are massive problems with it and we have got to work our arses off to make this car more a test-bed for next year's car. The important thing is to chip away, chip away and go forward in stages. That is why I'm here in Valencia working towards the next race in Austria."

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the team added in his defence: "When they keep changing the regular test driver around - it was (Luciano) Burti last year to a bit of (Pedro) de la Rosa and Tomas Scheckter this year - Eddie feels strongly he has to do all the testing. A driver can only trust a test driver who he's worked with over and over again."