Quote Originally Posted by rjbetty View Post
Yes this is what I remember too. I also remember Irvine mostly qualifying in the top 10. He was 7th fastest overall most of the season, but the car fell away later on, and Irvine ended up 9th, about +1.18sec off on average...
Yeah Irvine's start into the season was actually pretty promising. He qualified 6th in Brazil and made a great start and was right after the McLarens and Ferraris. Watching that I didn't understand, why did newspaper predict Jaguar form to be "2", because to me Jaguar seemed clearly in contention for points.

But Irvine spun off and really for whatever reason points rarely came that year despite them looking promising speed-wise. He often seemed racing in about 7th or 8th and in races without attrition just missed out of points.

A bit like BAR-Villeneuve combo had been in 1999. Qualified a very promising 5th in San Marino, then ran 3rd in Spain, but this potential didn't materialize in points.