Kavanagh to get Jaguar chance?

Formula One hopeful and EuroBOSS frontrunner Sarah Kavanagh may be on the verge of a grand prix breakthrough with the Jaguar Racing team - provided she can find the necessary backing to guarantee an accompanying Formula Three seat.

Irish woman Kavanagh has been tipped to get at least a test run with a couple of teams since she rose to prominence driving high-powered single-seaters in various national and international championships, but has always been hamstrung by financial shortfalls. Now she has a letter from Jaguar inviting her to become part of the F1 squad's development team, and just needs to secure a deal to race in the British F3 Championship with frontrunners Carlin Motorsport.

"Jaguar Racing would take Sarah into its official squad of drivers for 2004 as a development driver," reads the offer from operations director John Allison, "She would be under contract for both driving and promotional activities and those contracts would give Jaguar Racing options on her services as an F1 driver for the next three seasons beyond 2004.

"Additionally, Jaguar Racing would place her with a top F3 team, to race with them as a Jaguar sponsored driver for the 2004 season."

The F3 campaign is a major stipulation being laid down by Jaguar, which also appears unwilling for Kavanagh to go anywhere else but the reigning champions.

"I have spoken to Trevor Carlin, [and] he is willing to keep a place in his 2004 driver line-up for Sarah for the next few weeks," Allison continued, "[He] said that, in his judgement, she had the development potential to be at least an F1 test driver. Trevor would provide monthly reports on her progress and we would of course watch her results and come and cheer for her from time to time.

"At the end of the season, assuming her performance and progress so justified, we would give her an extended F1 test, with the real prospect of taking her on as one of our F1 drivers if she met the required standard."

The invitation asked that Kavanagh bring sponsorship of E1million to the team, in exchange for which she would be included as part of the extended driver squad - alongside Mark Webber, Christian Klien and Bjorn Wirdheim - for both driving and promotional activities. She would receive a salary for her role.

An insider said that Kavanagh was hopeful of either rescuing the deal by finding the sponsorship to join Carlin in F3, or to continue to have a presence on the international scene by racing in F3000.