Sunday March 17th, 2002

Jaguar boss Niki Lauda has revealed that the Ford-owned team will use their R3 chassis at the Brazilian Grand Prix in two weeks time.

Austrian Lauda had announced that the Milton Keynes-based squad will run a test at Barcelona next week with both last year's R2 and this year's R3, to compare their performance and decide whether to revert to the old machine for the next few races.

However, Lauda said after today's Malaysian Grand Prix that they have no time to develop the R2 before the Brazilian race and will therefore use the R3 despite failing to score any points today.

Both Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa suffered accidents during the race, with the Irishman losing his front wing after a clash with Minardi's Alex Yoong before retiring on lap 31.

Spaniard de la Rosa, who finished in tenth place, was also involved in an incident with BAR's Olivier Panis. Lauda claimed they could have scored points had they not had those problems.

"We should have scored points today, but both our drivers were involved in accidents and that cost us," said Lauda after the race. "Eddie may have dropped out anyway because of the hydraulic pressure loss, but Pedro should have been higher up the order.

"Nonetheless, we have again proved that regardless of starting at the back of the grid, we have the capability to fight for race points. Qualifying higher up the grid will make our lives a lot easier in this respect and my immediate priority is to find more speed.

"We will, however, race the R3 in Brazil. That is for sure. We do not have the capacity or the time to develop three R2s in time for Brazil. Should we decide to revert to the R2 for a few races, Imola could be the starting point, but not Brazil."

Published at 11:10:52 GMT