By steve
July 22 2003

Jaguar had a disappointing race at Silverstone for the British GP. Both drivers showed good speed in the early stages of the race, particularly Pizzonia whose fastest lap of the race(1:23.158) was quicker than Webbers fastest lap(1:23.833)and also the fastest lap behind the big four. Jaguar was one of the teams disadvantaged when the safety car came out on two occasions – Pizzonia was pushed to the rear of the field when he was brought in as the safety car came in - giving the rest of the field a nice head start.
Debris on the track brought the first safety car out. A nutcase on the track brought the second safety car out and possibly made the race one of the most memorable of the year, not just because he ran on the track – the racing was the best racing seen in a very long time. Many overtaking manoeuvres were seen - including passes by Pizzonia on Webber and vice versa. The pair actually came into contact with each other, fortunately in seems no serious harm was done to either vehicle. Webber eventually finished 14th and Pizzonia retired with engine failure.

Dr Mark Gillan – Head of Vehicle performance’s comments: " We knew that we had a tough race ahead of us and within the first fifteen laps we had had two safety cars deployed and knew that our race-strategy had been compromised. Both drivers drove a strong race despite suffering some issues, amongst which was Antonio having to change his steering wheel in his first pitstop. The team did a good job and Antonio continued to drive a strong race until lap 33 when he had an engine issue that ended his race. Until we get the car back we cannot confirm the reasons behind this, but of course we will have a full investigation back at the factory."

" Mark was also running a strong race, despite being clearly shocked by coming across a spectator on lap 11! I am very pleased that no-one was injured. Overall, after all the hard work that the team has put in for their home race it is disappointing not to reward the team or the fans. However, with this in mind we have collected a good amount of data over the weekend and we will go to Hockenheim with this in our back pockets. The true and accurate pace and performance of the car was not really given the opportunity to be showcased this weekend."

Mark Webber’ comments: “That was my toughest weekend and race of the season so far. The afternoon was very long as we battled against debris and spectators on the track. I got caught up behind some traffic after my first stop and that did not help my strategy. However even with all that in mind, I am pleased to have finished and very pleased not to have killed someone in the process. We have certainly learnt a lot this weekend and I know that we take a lot of data away with us this weekend that we can work on over the next two weeks in the run-up to the next round. Our reliability had gone from strength to strength and despite my points scoring coming to an end I am positive about the next five races and I am looking forward to scooping up some points that may come our way over the next few weekends”.

Antonio Pizzonia’s comments: “I am disappointed not to have finished the race, particularly because I had started in tenth position and I was in a good place for chasing for points. My car had been suffering from a few issues over the weekend and I was actually racing in my T-Car. The team had done a good job to pull this together and the balance was good. However, I had a steering wheel issue early on that we had to change and then a small chassis issue that did not help my cause. Despite those I carried on and was enjoying the race. My pace was competitive until lap 33 when I suffered an engine issue that was fatal to my race. We are still working on what the reason behind this was, but realistically we cannot confirm the cause of until we have the cars back. I go to Hockenheim having learnt a lot from our home race.”