Now the oldest man on the current Formula One grid, Eddie Irvine is going through a crucial year that is likely to determine his options of continuing racing for a top team. Unfortunately for him, Irvine has to drive the recalcitrant Jaguar to show what he is capable of. Graham Holliday analyses the Ulsterman's chances for the future

From fisticuffs with Ayrton Senna to playing gopher for Michael Schumacher, from the highs of the winner's podium to the battle for the wooden spoon at the back of the grid. Eddie Irvine has seen his fair share of action in a Formula One career spanning some ten seasons. Now officially the oldest man currently driving a Formula One car, speculation about his future has increased tenfold in recent weeks as the silly season gets into gear.

"This is the first proper Jaguar," Irvine told an expectant press at the unveiling of the R3 prior to taking it for a spin in January this year. Subsequent testing and race pace revealed that the 'first proper Jaguar' was never going to be first at anything. The Jaguar team might look like they are going for gold having just attached a 'Golden Jubilee Emblem' to their R3 in honour of the Queen's Jubilee. However, you can be sure that will be the only precious metal adorning a Jaguar racing car in 2002.

The Ulsterman has endured a torrid time ever since he left Ferrari to join the fledgling Jaguar team at the outset of the 2000 season. The team have continually failed to deliver where other teams on more meagre budgets like Sauber have regularly grabbed the points behind the big three. On paper, the Jaguar stable looked set to pick up the baton and run with it from where the Stewart team left off in 1999. However, internal wranglings, personnel issues, design rethinks, and aerodynamic flops have all conspired to leave the leaping cats napping at the bottom of the Formula One grid.

Reflecting on a poor debut season plagued with reliability woes, Irvine said at the start of 2001, "It will be difficult to do that badly again. If we do that bad again we deserve a good kicking." It's unclear who delivered the collective boot up the Jaguar behind, but whoever it was it didn't have the desired effect.

2002 has seen a new low in performance as Jaguar continue their residency at the lower end of the grid. At Monaco, a race where Jaguar scored their one and only podium in 2001, the R3s of Pedro de La Rosa and Irvine qualified in 20th and 21st positions respectively splitting the Minardi team, who operate on a fraction of budget of the cash drunk Cosworth powered team.

How much of this current mess is down to the Irvine factor is difficult to say. Design issues would appear to be the key area slated for improvement and much is expected from aero improvements to be introduced at the British Grand Prix in July. However, to the general public Irvine, like Jacques Villeneuve, has spectacularly failed to deliver whereas Michael Schumacher, setting out on his journey up the grid from similar beginnings at Ferrari, has.

This general perception may not be based on fact, but the end result has so far meant millions of dollars have been spent and very little in the way of results have come of it. When Ferrari took a step forward it was the right step, when Jaguar tried the same they only managed to go in the wrong direction, and they've been continually walking down that same road with every forward move since.

At 36 years old Eddie Irvine can't hang around much longer to see Jaguar haul themselves out of the hole they are in to where the team belong. Eddie's $6 million contract comes up for renewal at the end of this season and with little to show for either Jaguar's financial investment or Irvine's investment in time it seems unlikely that either party will want to continue the relationship. "The money is not the issue," Irvine said in Montreal. "I don't need the money…. results are what's serious."

With the top drives for 2003 all but accounted for coming up to half season distance the luck of this Irishman may just have run out.

With deals and contract negotiations at Renault, Jaguar, Jordan and McLaren set to kick off in earnest at Silverstone, Eddie doesn't have a lot of time to pick up another ride. Behind the scenes rumours churn about a possible return to Jordan to replace a lacklustre Takuma Sato. Sato's future could well lay with the Honda powered BAR team leaving a vacant seat in a yellow car.

Team owner Eddie Jordan isn't averse to taking on drivers he's employed before, old or young. Current Jordan number one Giancarlo Fisichella started his first full season in a Jordan, so did Jean Alesi, who started with Jordan in F3000 and finished his Formula One days at the Irish owned team. And now it is increasingly likely that Irvine will be doing the same thing.

Asked about the current spate of rumours in Montreal he chose his words carefully, "Jordan's a good team and there are some great people there who I have worked with before, but it is the car that matters." Fisichella, for one, was quite excited at the prospect of partnering four times race winner Irvine. "It would be great," he said at the Canadian Grand Prix. "I think Eddie is a very good driver, he's a nice guy, very friendly and he did well in the past. It would be nice."

A recent high profile Jaguar test drive for Renault's tester Fernando Alonso was ostensibly billed as a 'benchmark' test aimed at gauging the ability of Jaguar junior drivers Andre Lotterer and James Courtney. Alonso was impressed and so was everyone else and the ex Minardi driver for one is up for the challenge, "If they want me that is good for me," the young Spaniard said after setting an eyebrow raising 4th fastest time around Silverstone.

Renault are happy with their current line-up, but are keen to get Briatore's prodigy back on the grid come 2003. One way or another Alonso will go racing in 2003. However, it remains to be seen which team employ his services. Irvine for his part could offer more to the Jordan Grand Prix than just his driving ability. Eddie Irvine is probably the most controversial and loudmouthed driver in Formula One. Loved and loathed in equal measure he does bring a certain 'lad cachet' to the paddock which is particularly in vogue with sponsors at the moment.

Although Eddie commands a high salary for his services this could well be offset by happy sponsors who might be prepared to dig a little deeper for a little longer in the belief that the Irishman could help bring the profile of the team back to where it was when Damon Hill was driving for the Buzzin' Hornets.

Irvine, however, would gladly trade the high revving motor in his own mouth for one below the bonnet, "I want to have the best car I can have, that's all there is." Jordan might not be able to deliver on that promise with engine supply looking shaky for the near future, but Irvine's only other choice might be another racing series or slippers and a pipe back in Ireland. Or as he said last season, "It's a great job but everyone wants it and if you're not doing it, you know, get out, go home and sit in front of the TV."

But it's not a job he intends retiring from any time soon, "The end of my current contract with Jaguar does not stipulate that I must leave Formula One," he said. "I must check the contract and see if that's what it says. If I do the job, I stay. If I don't do the job I go. That's normal, it's sport."

Fast Eddie might be hoping for more from Jordan than he experienced during his early Formula One years at the team. But we'll just have to wait and see if he's challenging for victories in the twilight of his career next season.