Irvine vows to quit if Big Cat fails to growl at Silverstone

Whatever anyone else has planned for him, Eddie Irvine is adamant that he will determine his own future, based on the evidence of his car's performance in Sunday's British Grand Prix.

One of the many speculations circulating the Formula One paddock is that Jaguar intend offloading a driver who, at the age of 36, is the oldest in the world championship and who, on a salary of £6m a year, is draining precious resources from a team which needs all the development funding they can muster.

Irvine, a shrewd operator in the money market, acknowledges that a pay cut would be unavoidable so that, he maintains, is not an issue. What is an issue for him, he stresses, is the prospect of being able to enjoy his racing again. Therefore, if the revised car that Jaguar have produced for Silverstone is no better than the machine he has wrestled for the first half of the season, he will prefer to take his leave.

"I only want to continue racing if I get a good car,'' he said. "I don't want to race if I don't. I enjoyed my motor racing more last year than any other time in Formula One. I qualified 13th or 14th and so many times we were knocking on the door of fifth or sixth.

"This year had been just awful. I've woken up a few times thinking: 'What's the point?' The whole point has been about getting the weeks to pass until Silverstone.

"I'm optimistic but anxious. We have heard it all before, about how the car is going to be improved. At least the optimism this time is based on facts and much better working practices. There is a bit more science involved.

"Money is not the decisive factor for me. Everyone has a certain value based on what they bring to the team. I'm worth a certain amount for my driving ability, a certain amount for my PR value and a certain amount for my technical input. I don't think we will fall out over money. I think Jaguar know my worth. We are not that far apart.''

Half of his current retainer would still be unimaginable fortunes for the mainstream population and tempting even for some wealthy racing drivers, as Irvine is apt to remind us.

"I won't do a Damon [Hill]'' he says. "The last few years for him were probably just a money-grabbing exercise. I don't really know what his motivation was. I've been very lucky since I came into Formula One. I went to Ferrari and had some of the best sponsors apart from Michael [Schumacher]''.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Irvine has no hang-ups concerning his former team-mate. He abhors some of Schumacher's tactics on the track, yet is content to recognise the German as the one driver better than he is.

Irvine's self-belief is impervious to evidence that suggests he may be no better than his current partner, the unsung Spaniard, Pedro de la Rosa. But then bravado is an essential part of the Irvine image.

No one can argue that he has not done well for himself. The bumptious kid from Northern Ireland has the status symbols of the trade; a yacht moored in a Mediterranean port, a plane capable of flying transatlantic, homes in Milan and Miami, an investment of nearly 50 more properties and, apparently, an unending queue of adoring females.

But although he went close to winning the championship in 1999, after Schumacher broke his leg at Silverstone, a challenge for the title has never been on the agenda. Not for him the gift-wrapped prize he considers other drivers to have been presented with. "I have been unfortunate perhaps not to have been in the right place at the right time,'' Irvine says. "Damon walked into the best car at Williams and won a world title. So did Jacques [Villeneuve]. When I was at Ferrari the McLaren was a far better car.''

Schumacher, he expands, has had the benefit of a superior car only for the past two seasons, yet is on course for his fifth championship. Irvine dismisses some of the younger aspirants, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, as overrated and over-hyped. Button, the 22-year-old Englishman driving for Renault, is one of those who might replace Irvine at Jaguar next season.

Irvine says: "If Jaguar think there is someone out there who can do a better job than me, fine. I don't want to waste the work of 400 people in the factory. But I still believe in my own talent.''

If the new Jaguar is competitive, he clearly wishes to continue. For all he has banked and is still banking, grand prix racing remains his burning desire.

"Nothing outside of Formula One lights my fire at the minute, and things are going in the right direction here for the first time in a while,'' he says. "I feel there are people here I can work with. Logic applies. The problems were always purely down to management. I can't remember a mistake ever being made on my car by the mechanics.''

Irvine welcomed Niki Lauda's appointment as team principal in place of Bobby Rahal and believes Günther Steiner, the new technical overlord, is proving the necessary direction. However, Lauda's future may also be determined by the performance of the revamped R3. The early dreams of putting this famous marque at the front of the grid have given way to harsh reality. Irvine and Jaguar have been relegated to the desperate scramble at the back.

The rest of the UK drivers willingly play the patriotic card in the build-up to their home grand prix. Not Irvine.

"I've never seen myself as British. I'm Irish. Silverstone is nothing special for me – just another race with more aggro.''

Except that this year's British Grand Prix could be a defining race for all involved at Jaguar. "To be 10th on the grid would be fantastic,'' he says. "I honestly don't know where we will be. At the moment probably last, except for the Minardis. The next step is relatively easy. We have to get the car within a second of the pace, which is more straightforward than getting from a second off it to being on the pace.

"It was nice to get the first podium finish for Jaguar. It would be even nicer to get the first win. But we are just not in that position at the minute. When I joined we were in a position to go forward, but mistakes were made. When that happens you pay the price.

"We have gone through a lot of hardship, but I think the end result will be worth it."