Wednesday March 6th, 2002

By Alan Baldwin

Jaguar could replace their disappointing new R3 Formula One car with a version of last year's after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Team spokesman Nav Sidhu said there would be no change before the second race of the season at Sepang next week but nothing had been ruled out for the following Grands Prix.

"The R3 will race in Malaysia," he said on Wednesday. "The cars are going straight to Malaysia from Melbourne. What we do beyond that is being considered right now.

"We need to understand exactly what to do to the R3 to make it competitive," he added. "If we find that it simply is not achievable, then we might have to look at the R2 post-Malaysia."

But Sidhu emphasised that reverting to the 'old' car was "not an option to take lightly".

The new car was well off the pace at Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix and Briton Eddie Irvine and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa qualified 19th and 20th respectively. But the Ford-owned team picked up a surprising three points when Irvine finished a lucky fourth after almost half the grid was wiped out in a first corner pile-up.

The race was won by World Champion Michael Schumacher in last season's Ferrari, with his team dominating the weekend from start to finish. Ferrari had decided to use a developed version of the F2001 after uncertainty over the reliability of their new car. The champions have yet to decide which to run in Malaysia and are testing the F2002 in Italy this week.

Much Fanfare

The R3 was unveiled with much fanfare in early January as the first 'proper' Jaguar but it soon became apparent there were major flaws in the aerodynamics. The old car, which took a lot of criticism last season for being too slow and too heavy, appeared to be more competitive and the problems led to the departure of technical director Steve Nichols in February.

Jaguar boss Niki Lauda has returned to Britain after the Australian Grand Prix, while Irvine went to Hong Kong and de la Rosa straight to Malaysia. Lauda was quoted on the team's website as saying that Jaguar would have "a huge meeting" this week about the situation with the car.

Sidhu said it had not taken place yet but "it will be nothing more than the obvious, bringing everybody together to look at the problems".

A developed R2 could prove a better bet for certain races but it will need a modified power steering system since the electronic one used last year has now been banned. The Melbourne result gave the team little to celebrate beyond a lucky break and Irvine said afterwards that "we can't kid ourselves, we're still a long way behind".

Published at 14:22:06 GMT