Wednesday March 20th, 2002

Jaguar Racing team principal Niki Lauda has claimed that Ford, owners of the Milton Keynes team, will not pull the plug on the troubled Formula One team.

Jaguar have struggled in Formula One since Ford decided to purchase the Stewart team and rename it for the 2000 season, and things have been worse than ever this season despite a fourth place finish in Australia.

Lauda, who took over at the helm of the under-pressure team from Bobby Rahal last year, insisted that Ford-owned Jaguar will not be pulled out of the Championship despite their disappointing results.

"There's no problem whatsoever with the Ford commitment," Lauda told Motorsport News. "Everything is signed with Ford for the next four years and even Bill Ford, at the Geneva Motor Show, confirmed all this."

Jaguar began a three-day test at Barcelona on Wednesday aimed at rectifying problems with their new R3 chassis, while the team have not ruled out the possibility of reverting back to last year's R2.

Published at 12:42:17 GMT