F1 Mystery: What Happened to the Jaguar Diamond?
The biggest news the Jaguar F1 team made in F1 involved a strange tie-in with the Ocean’s 12 film.
While Jaguars have always been known for providing drivers with “grace, space, and pace,” as even casual motorsports fans know, the marque has a proud history of success on the track. In the 1950s the company’s C-Type and D Type were forces to be reckoned with at Le Mans, and in 1988 and 1990, Jaguar prototypes again took the checkered flag in France. Factory efforts aside, privateers were also competitive, as Bob Tullis and his Group 44 team proved with their success in the Sports Car Club of America’s B-Class and Trans-Am series.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well when Jaguar entered Formula 1 for the 2000 season. Flush with funding from then parent company Ford, its F1 squad hit the grid packing a Cosworth engine, but wouldn’t score a championship point until the following season, when Eddie Irvine finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix. And despite having some legendary names — including Nikki Lauda, Mark Webber, and Bobby Rahal — in the paddock, Jaguar never managed to finish more than seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.
In the clip below, you can see — and hear! — some of the drivers in action.
The biggest news the Jaguar team actually made had nothing to do with racing, but rather a strange tie-in with the Ocean’s 12 film. As the video below explains, the team’s PR director thought it would be a good idea to mount $300,000 diamonds to the nose cones of the two race machines. But while Mark Webber returned to the pit with his car intact, his teammate Christian Klien crashed right out of the gate — and the jewel was never to be seen again.
Now, I have to admit that a vanishing diamond does seem to work thematically with the heist flick it was designed to hype. That said, the idea a driver would crash on team orders to make sure it disappeared doesn’t hold water for me. Where it ended up is anyone’s guess, though I was under the impression that the streets of Monaco were crusted with jewels. So I don’t really get all the commotion.
In all seriousness, head to YouTube to watch the video below, as it’s a neat time capsule and also details some other wild things that have happened on the F1 grid.
Photos: YouTube