Saturday March 2nd, 2002

By Timothy Collings

Takuma Sato sat with a half-smile of his satisfaction under a tree in the damp Albert Park paddock on Saturday afternoon. He was holding a news conference and reflecting on his misfortune in failing to clock a decent time in qualifying for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but his good luck in being given a place on the grid after a successful appeal by his DHL Jordan Honda team. "I could not drive my teammate's car properly," he admitted. "There was no heel rest and the pedals were all over the place."

A few yards away, where the Jaguar 'meet the media' session was due to take place, there was nobody. No drivers, no team personnel and no reporters. The grassy patch, where the meeting should have happened, was sealed off by a green tape. The team's media spokesperson Nav Sidhu was left with the task of explaining why the routine briefing was not happening and why it had been cancelled without notice.

"We've said it all in the news release," he said. "Let's be honest. It has not been a good day. The guys, the drivers and the team, normally hold a de-briefing that runs for half an hour or so after the session and then go into the media session. Today, they haven't finished talking, they've been in there for more than two hours."

Brave boy, Nav. It does not take a hero to walk away and ignore the flak when it flies, but it does take honesty and guts to be open and answerable. It does not take a genius, either, to work out that this Jaguar team, beset by problems, is in the first throes of what may develop into a full-blown crisis.

The rushed recruitment of Niki Lauda last year, when Bobby Rahal was sacked after floundering, the lack of any successful or coherent technical strategy and the sheer muddle that seems to be transmitted with their every move since January 1 suggests nothing more nor less.

"The new Jaguar R3 is suffering from a severe lack of aerodynamic downforce and the team's new windtunnel in Bicester (UK), which will be operational from next month, cannot come soon enough," the team announced in only the second paragraph of their official release to the media. "Until now, the team have had to make use of the Swift windtunnel in California – over 6,000 miles away from its headquarters in Milton Keynes (UK)."

Eddie Irvine had qualified 19th and Pedro de la Rosa 20th and both were disappointed, to say the least. It was plain in their body language and in the way in which the Spaniard unloaded a few of his frustrations to a television reporter in the pitlane at the end of the session.

"The team have been going wrong all the way, from the beginning and have not really got anything sorted out yet. We were slow, we were caught out by the weather, we were not ready. Yes, I am downhearted, but not so much that I cannot recover in the race..."

It will be interesting to see what happens. The men in Dearborn are watching. The Ford Motor Company is losing money. Hatchets are being polished and sharpened again. It is an old story, one that was heard last year, but one that is back in use again. Can Lauda survive? Or Irvine? Is there any point in sacrificing anyone else following the exits of Rahal and the recently-dismissed technical director Steve Nichols? Is Eghbal Hamidy set to leave Jordan and move down the A5 in England to try and save this team?

The questions are piling up and the answers will come from the men in the United States, not those behind the green tape in the Albert Park paddock.

Published at 06:24:18 GMT