Formula 1

Belgium GP Jaguar preview

Triple world champion Niki Lauda arrives in Spa Francorchamps this weekend as Jaguar Racing's newly appointed Team Principal. After thirteen rounds of the 2001 FIA Formula One World Championship, Jaguar Racing stands 9th in the Constructors ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Triple world champion Niki Lauda arrives in Spa Francorchamps this weekend as Jaguar Racing's newly appointed Team Principal. After thirteen rounds of the 2001 FIA Formula One World Championship, Jaguar Racing stands 9th in the Constructors Championship and with only four races left, the need to move up the order is becoming ever-pressing.

Niki Lauda - Team Principal
"It will take me some time to completely understand the requirements of running a modern-day Formula One team and with that in mind, you will not see a noticeable difference in this team's performance over the next four races. We will, of course, work very hard to ensure that we grab whatever points are available, but my presence will not manifest itself immediately on the race track. We have a very good team of people working at Jaguar Racing and I do not want to disrupt their rhythm. The Jaguar R2's last development phase was up until the Hungarian Grand Prix and we will not have any significant developments from here on. Spa will be tough on us and we'll have to fight every inch of the way to be in with a points-scoring chance. Spa is famous for fast corners and wet weather - not our favourite conditions to say the least!"

Eddie Irvine
"I know it goes against the general view about this circuit, but I am not a huge fan of the Spa Francorchamps track: give me Suzuka any day. I appreciate the fact it is a real road circuit with plenty of fast corners, but speed alone is not very challenging. On top of that, it is a dangerous place when it rains. For Spa you need a well-balanced car and braking is important for the tight sections like the hairpin and the chicane which provide a couple of overtaking opportunities. You also need plenty of power for the long climb after Eau Rouge. We had two productive days testing at Silverstone last week, where I feel we made useful progress, particularly in qualifying trim, which, as I've said time and again, is our weak point. But testing and racing are two different things, so we will have to wait until Saturday afternoon to see if that progress is genuine or not."

Pedro de la Rosa "Spa will be a difficult race for us because of the nature of this circuit and the unpredictable weather conditions. Low downforce configuration has not exactly been our strength this year, but we made some useful steps forward at our Silverstone test last week. The team has done a brilliant job all year in extracting pace from the aero package and with so little left to extract now, we must rely on getting the absolute best from our qualifying performance in Spa. It's a daunting place at the best of times and should it be wet, our mountain will become an even-steeper one to climb. The balance of the car has been good all season and that's a critical factor which we have in our favour this weekend." ....more/

-Jaguar

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Lap of Spa-Francorchamps with Alex Wurz

Next article Belgian GP Thursday press conference

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

2 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

3 h

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

3 h

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

FIA F2

F2 FIA F2 3 h

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

Feature

Discover prime content

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts