Lauda hopes for more points
Niki Lauda is optimistic Jaguar can build on the long-awaited points they scored two weeks ago in Belgium when the grand prix circus heads to Italy this weekend.
Eddie Irvine scored a sixth-placed finish at Spa-Francorchamps – Jaguar’s first points since the opening race of the season in Australia – and the Milton Keynes-based squad followed that up by topping the timesheets at recent Monza tests.
Now team boss Lauda is keeping his fingers crossed the team can maintain that momentum at Monza, a circuit he admits poses problems for Formula One cars.
The three-time world champion said: “We go into the weekend with relatively more optimism than other races
“It was a constructive test that went quite some way towards highlighting the strengths of our package under low-downforce conditions.
“Nevertheless, one should never take test times too seriously and until everyone takes to the track for qualifying, it would be foolish to make any predictions about the weekend ahead of us.
“Like Spa-Francorchamps, Monza is one of the last great circuits left on the F1 calendar and as we have witnessed so many times in the past, it has a tendency to punish.
“Because of these challenges, I think Monza is one of the best circuits on the calendar.
“I have won here twice, but there have been many safety changes since then. Even still, it remains one of the fastest of the modern day tracks and it rarely fails to provide an exciting race.”
