Tuesday February 29th, 2000

Jaguar recruit Eddie Irvine is prepared to settle for a podium finish behind McLaren and Ferrari in this year's battle for world championship supremacy.

"If we can come out at the end of the championship in third place it will be like winning the title for us. We can't really expect to get any further than that in our first year," the British driver said on Tuesday.

"It can't be anything other than a long haul with Jaguar. You don't just come in and win a championship in your first year. Ferrari have seen that."

Irvine has changed the design of his crash helmet ahead of the new season. Gone are the red, green and white stripes he favoured at Ferrari. In comes a design based around the image of a jaguar cat.

"It was my idea to go for a new design," he said. "The old one clashed with the Jaguar Racing livery. It was time to go for something new and I wanted to bring a different perspective to Formula One. It had to be flamboyant, colourful and fun."

Incidentally, Irvine's new helmet design ressembles that of the football team, Jacksonville Jaguars, as can be seen here.