Saturday March 16th, 2002

Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine has claimed that he could quit Formula One racing if his team fail to be competitive in the near future.

Irvine, the oldest driver in this year's field, joined the Ford-owned squad in 2000 after finishing runner-up in the 1999 Championship with Ferrari. The outspoken Ulsterman has struggled in the mid-field in his first two years with Jaguar, having a third place at Monaco last year as his best result so far.

Things have not improved for him this season, with the Cosworth-powered R3 chassis proving to be far from competitive. Irvine has qualified in 19th and 20th positions in the two qualifying sessions that have taken place so far in 2002.

Now he has threatened to quit racing if Jaguar are not competitive soon.

"I have got to perform and if I don't perform I don't want to stay," said Irvine in Malaysia today, where he qualified only ahead of the two Minardis. "I don't want to drive at the back of the field and make a few million dollars. I believe whatever will be will be and I will turn my hand to something else.

"But competition is what I enjoy so achieving that in whatever walk of life is not going to be an issue."

Irvine benefitted from the mayhem at the start of the Australian Grand Prix to finish in fourth place in Melbourne and give Jaguar their first points of the season. However, he has admitted that he did not enjoy the race at all.

"It's not fun getting blown away," the Irishman added. "The only fun is to race. Last year I had so much fun in the races because we screwed up in qualifying then I had a good car for the race and it was fantastic. This year Australia was not fun even though I got three points.

"It was embarrassing. I would not want to continue here if it's like this but the good thing is I don't think it will."

Published at 15:01:34 GMT