No risks taken with R5

The Jaguar R5 launched at the Circuit de Catalunya on January 18th was described by head of aerodynamics Ben Agathangelou as an evolution of 2003's R4, without any risk taking. The team seems to have settled down from its previous history of rapid staff turnover, including bosses and technical directors, and Agathangelou believes the stability has given a good platform to work from.

"We have learnt so much from last year's R4 by working in a low-risk, conventional fashion and now that we have stability within every department of the team it has given us a chance to push really hard to make the new R5 an improvement," he said.

"It has been an education for me because it's the first time we have had a car that we trust and understand pretty well. That has meant that we could refine and evolve it rather than take a few risks, which is what we had to do in the past."

The CR6 engine is also a development of its predecessor and, as for all the teams, has to cope with the demands of the new rule that means engine life has to last a whole weekend. Nick Hayes, Technical Director at Cosworth Racing, is looking forward to the challenge.

"The CR6-V10 engine is a development of last year's engine," said Hayes. "So it remains a 90-degree V10, but we have new longer-life requirements in 2004 thanks to the rule that means we can only use one engine over a whole Grand Prix weekend. Previously an engine would last for 450-500km but now we expect engines to have to survive for around 800km so we've been doing a lot of work on the CR6 to extract the best performance but at the right life."

"A lot of the components in a 2003 engine wouldn't last for much more than a race, let alone a whole weekend, so much of our recent work was seeing how we can extend the lifespan without hurting performance. It will certainly be a challenging season for all engines on the grid!"