Saturday March 16th, 2002

Jaguar team boss Niki Lauda claims his squad should keep their cool and try to look to the future despite another disappointing performance in today's qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Milton Keynes-based team will carry out a test with both last year's R2 and the new R3 at the Barcelona circuit next week in order to make a decision on which car they will use in the next few races following the new machine's poor performance.

After Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa qualified in 17th position and teammate Eddie Irvine was down in 20th place, Lauda said the team must remain calm and stay positive.

"With the R3 arriving in Malaysia last week direct from Melbourne, we were not expecting to find a great deal of additional speed here compared with Australia," admitted Lauda. "Therefore, the qualifying positions are representative of what the car is capable of at this time and it is no more than we expected.

"I very much doubt that half the field will retire tomorrow, as was the case in Melbourne, and we will therefore aim to generate as much data as possible from the race. This, combined with next week's back-to-back test with last year's R2, will dictate what we do from here on.

"We must keep our cool, be logical and move forward in a systematic way. We are disappointed, yes, but everybody is keeping their heads up and thinking positively about the challenge ahead."

Irvine and de la Rosa qualified in 19th and 20th positions at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, but the Irishman took advantage of the carnage at the start of the race to finish in fourth place, albeit a lap behind winner Michael Schumacher.

Published at 08:59:32 GMT