Monday March 13th, 2000

Jaguar's Johnny Herbert urged his Formula One team on Monday to act quickly to prevent a repeat of the double failure at the Australian Grand Prix. Herbert went out after lap one with clutch problems and was followed five laps later by team mate Eddie Irvine as Jaguar's debut season in F1 began disastrously in Melbourne.

Jaguar mechanics and technicians began work on modifications to the cars as soon as the race was over and test driver Luciano Burti will try out new parts at Silverstone ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix on March 26.

Herbert, who is flying to Florida for fitness training before heading to the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, said he believed Jaguar were close to getting the cars into competitive shape.

"It's good news that we can go to Interlagos with some changes," he said. "When the car's running, we're okay. You can see that it's there or thereabouts, but we need to get both cars running consistently.

"It's been very frustrating but the whole team must pull together, go away and fix it before we get to Brazil."