Jaguar (jaguar-racing.com)

Pity poor Jaguar. While their major owner is the Ford Motor Company, they have one of the lowest budgets in Formula 1. While Renault and Ferrari spend upwards of $400 million per season, Jaguar’s budget is around $150 million. While that is a lot of money, it is chump change in F1.

Even Bernie Eccelstone has even weighed in on the subject and has gone so far as to question Ford’s commitment to the venture. Bernie’s questioning of the Minardi team was absurd. But his concerns over Jag are well founded. This is a team that should be able to compete, but simply don’t.

Since 2000 when the Leaping Cat took the track for the first time, the team has garnered only 2 podium finishes. Unless Jag’s drivers are miracle workers, this season will bring more of the same.

Once again this year Jag will sport what I consider the prettiest car in the F1. HSBC is back as the main sponsor with the traditional British green livery. Jaguar has a new car, the R5 which team boss Tony Purnell has pooh-poohed in the press. However, returning driver Mark Webber has downplayed the cars shortcomings. Again this season Jag will run the Cosworth engine. It is the same engine as Jordan will run.

Webber is joined by 21 year old Christian Klien who brings lots of Red Bull money to the table. Generally this is not the way F1 works, but tight budget teams may start looking for this kind of financial help. Bjorn Wirdheim has signed on as test driver and will probably make a bid for one of the race seats before the season is done. Wirdheim won the F3000 championship last season.

Testing has been so-so this preseason. At Jerez, Webber was 9th out of 14 and 8th out of 15, while Klien was 11th both days. The team did improve at Valencia with Webber going 4th and 5th of 11 while Klein was 11th and 3rd. Yesterday at Silverstone, Wirdheim was 4th of 4.

The Leaping Cat will once again this season find the going tough. Last season the team scored 18 total points with Webber getting 17 of those. The entire life of this team has been topsy turvy. From Jackie Stewart to Bobby Rahal to Nikki Lauda and now Purnell the instability has been from the top to the bottom. This team is a fan favorite, but they are a lovable loser. Don’t count on anything really changing that fact this year, although Mark Webber is a fine driver.