It is fast becoming the watchword of the championship build-up. A name that keeps cropping up in conversations across every crowded, noisy, frenetically ostentatious conference centre and function room in Europe.

As teams prepare to launch their new machines from under the pearlescent glow of arc lights and onto the race tracks of the world, the name Jordan crops up again and again.

On Monday it was BAR, promoting their new silver and white wedding cake of a marriage with Honda and whispering their heartfelt desire to edge within touching distance of the Irish outfit. Yesterday, as an emerald green Jaguar hove into the debutantes ball held in its honour at Lord's cricket ground, it was Eddie Irvine's chance to single out his old boss' outfit for mention.

Talking up the new marques chances, the Irish driver, who appears finally to have shaken off the long shadow of Michael Schumacher, set his sights firmly on edging Jordan from the third place constructors' championship berth earned by Heinz-Harald Frentzen last season.

"If we can beat Jordan it will be like winning the world championship," he said. "Even if we can consolidate fourth we've done a good job as well, but to beat Jordan would be great."

For a team with the enviable and potentially limitless resources of parent company Ford to draw on, eclipsing Eddie Jordan's band of privateers may seem a very finite ambition. But, according to Irvine, when the freebooters are piloting an alarmingly fast and reliable craft, it's aim enough.

"Look, if you're a caveman and you want to get to the moon then first you have to get to the top of the hill," said the former Ferrari star, briefly wandering into Cantona-esque metaphor.

"You can't just shoot rockets, you have to build them first. It takes a lot of forward planning. I mean, if you look at McLaren, at where they are now, that took years to do.

"If you look at Ferrari it's the same, they're building and building and building and that's what we have to do. It doesn't happen overnight."

And it is a realistic aim. The push behind the former Stewart team is relentless and huge, bringing in a new CR-2 engine courtesy of Ford's racing arm Cosworth, engine management from Ford suppliers Visteon and a new tie-in with the recently-acquired Pye electronics company.

But while the push from Ford is growing and growing, the size of the task has become too much for the team's chief executive officer, Jackie Stewart. Announcing the arrival of his latest child, the Jaguar R1, the three-time world champion and Stewart Grand Prix boss announced his retirement as head of Jaguar's Racing programme. He will hand over the duties to the vulpine Neil Ressler, the Ford vice-president and chief technical officer, who initiated a boardroom shake-up two years ago, which saw Paul Stewart sidelined to chief operating officer, a title the scion of the Stewart clan still holds.

"The last four years were the hardest of any time in my life," Stewart the elder said, "and consequently today I want to announce my retirement as CEO of the team. I'll still remain on the board and I'll be at the factory every week and involve myself with strategy and the drivers, but it just won't be the same number of days."

Stewart insisted he was not being edged out by his Ford superiors, saying that he merely wanted to spend more time with his family and that it was not good for a company to continue with the same structures throughout its life.

Irvine, however, admitted that the move had come as no surprise and said that Stewart's retirement would not unduly affect the team.

"I don't think having Jackie around is that important," he said. "You know, he set up the team and got it to where it is, but it's the technical people in the team that are the important people.

"We've got Gary (Anderson) and we've got a couple of new guys joining us, and that's what we have to build on. They're the people that make the car good."

In the past though, Irvine's relationship with Anderson has been testy. The two worked together at Jordan from 1993 until Irvine left for Ferrari at the end of 1995, and while there Anderson was firmly believed to be gravitating towards the camp of team-mate Rubens Barrichello. Irvine, however, insisted that their relationship at Jaguar is on an even footing.

"We have no problems, I talk to him straight," said Irvine. "I have no preconceptions, but I know where we need to get to for Ferrari's level. I don't know what we need to do to get to McLaren's level, because they were ahead of Ferrari and that's uncharted territory for me. But I know about Ferrari and there's areas here where we need to improve. There are areas we're ahead in.

"I'm here to give my opinion and it's up to Gary as technical director to take what he thinks is correct and to discard what he thinks is not correct. That's his job and my job is just to say what I think and there's no problem there. We have a good working understanding."

Before indulging in any technical advisement, Irvine will first have to take on team-mate Johnny Herbert, also a former team-mate at Jordan. But yesterday Irvine was all diplomacy, stating that the goal was to push Jaguar ahead of Jordan.

"As long as both of us can score enough points to be ahead of Jordan, I think we'll both have done a very good job," he said.

"That's the first aim. If I score 30 points and Johnny scores none or vice versa and Jordan score 50, that's not a good balance for the team. "We've both got to be competitive. We've both got to be up there all the time. As for rivalry, we're both professionals and past the stage where this is the first big team we've been in. This is the team we want to be in now and we want to build something Jaguar can be proud of."