Your opinion will probably be coloured by how much you like either of them, but the on-track outcome will probably depend upon how well they mesh with the team under the pressure they will undoubtedly face. After all, each has a lot to bring to jaguar’s dangerously high-profile party.

Irvine started ahead of Herbert, when he signed his deal with Ford chief, Jac Nasser, he was a World Championship contender with Ferrari, the man who picked up the torch of fallen Michael Schumacher.

Herbert was struggling. Irvine used his red tide as a means of diving into a lucrative sea of green. He gave the title chase his best shot, and though he came up short, four Grand Prix wins and second place in the championship was certainly something to be proud of.

So everything at Jaguar is about Eddie and Johnny, not Johnny and Eddie. A small point at the recent lavish launch, but you pick up on such things. Irvine is the high-profile teamster who can bring all of his World Championship contender status to bear together with a lot of Ferrari’s technical know-how.

While all this was going on, Herbert edged alongside and is now fractionally ahead, following his excellent testing form. Hot from his disaster-ending victory at the Nürburgring last October, he went on to outqualify and outrace his Ferrari-bound team-mate Rubens Barrichello, the man so beloved by the Stewart management. His pace (and ongoing contract) forced Stewart and Ford to reconsider plans to give him the elbow. As the last winner of a European GP in the 20th century, Herbert ended the year fastest in testing in Spain and began the new millennium where he left off: fastest thus far of the runners in 2000 machinery.

Irvine survived a big shunt at Barcelona when a cooling connection came undone, but he has been close enough behind to suggest that the two will be evenly matched - as Irvine and Barrichello were in their Jordan days - once he gets to grips with the car.

At Lord’s Cricket Ground for the unveiling of the R1, Herbert looked fit, relaxed and determined. Irvine, by unusual contrast, seemed ill at ease. There was little of his ready humour, as if he was uncertain how he would be accepted by the audience. Curious.

Technical director Gary Anderson is a big fan of Irvine, but he also enjoys an easy relationship with Herbert. They usually speak twice daily. 

"Johnny is very strong at the moment, in his mind and his attitude," Anderson observes. "He’s obviously going to be stronger with Eddie than with Rubens, because Rubens Was the blue-eyed boy here. It was hard for Johnny to walk in, because it was always Rubens, Rubens, Rubens. But he did have a win and was competitive elsewhere, and that keeps our spirits up. He did that test in Barcelona, and he was quick.

"I think a bit of competition will be good. Johnny has quite a strong attitude and won’t let many people get on top of him, but Eddie’s quick, as long as he’s put his dedication to it, and he sometimes lacks a hit of that."

The conversation swings to That Programme, the Irvine TV show which, while portraying him as that rare thing, a driver with character, also seems to have done his image as a professional a fair bit of harm. 

"Terrible, wasn’t it," Anderson grimaces, and adds with sarcasm: "Did his image a lot of good...

"It was Eddie, unfortunately. I didn’t see a camera on him when he was out training or in the gym. I saw him lying down a few times. I’ll have to have a word with him about that."

One of Irvine’s major strong points was the nous he could bring from Ferrari, but Anderson sees that in a different light after their first test together in Jerez.

"His knowledge was what we thought would be a big help," he admits, "but when he arrived he realised we weren’t that stupid and maybe there were a few things Ferrari could learn, so that attitude has changed a little bit.

"They do some things differently to us, and we do some things differently to them. But some of the stuff we’ve got on this is way ahead of what they can do. He suddenly discovered we aren’t a bunch of idiots from Milton Keynes. He was coming to us as a three-year-old team that needed building, and he’s realised that we are a three-year-old team that is pretty strong."

Those who remember that celebrated incident at Monza in 1994, when Irvine took Herbert’s fast-qualifying Lotus off at the first corner, are expecting fireworks between the two. But former team chairman Jackie Stewart, who says he will be devoting more time to driver training, doesn’t believe he will need to be peacemaker.

"Eddie and Johnny are both very mature, but I do think I can help them to drive better. Now, I’ve time on my hands, and I think I can help Eddie and Johnny to go everywhere they want to go. I’ve been there. I’ve been through the hardships of losing form, of over-driving and struggling with car set-ups. I’ve also experienced winning titles, and I’m quite happy to pass on that experience if it is required. You are never too old to learn."

It’s interesting that it’s easy-going Herbert who seems to be lifting the shutters. Irvine, usually the one to play psychological games, is adopting a low profile thus far.

"I don’t foresee any problems with Johnny" he says. "He came on strong at the end of last season, and he’s not going to be a walkover. It’s always difficult for the guy coming in. We want to be quicker than each other, but I don’t see a situation where it’s destructive to the team. We’re past the stage when we’re trying to heat each other up."

Herbert’s tail is up, and he is desperate to maintain his newly regained confidence and not to surrender the high ground. He knows that whatever happens, Irvine has an ongoing contract and he doesn’t, if things fail to gel, 2000 could be his last hurrah in Fl.

"I blew his socks off when we were team-mates in Formula Ford back in ‘85," he smiles, "and I’d like to do the same again. But I think it will be a healthy relationship. We’ve got equal equipment from the outset, and that’s all I ever ask.

"The good thing is, I’m beating him at the moment. That’s got to carry on, and I’ve got to carry on where I left off last year." If he does, he may stay on into 2001, but... "if I have a bad year, I won’t."

In their own ways, both are good poker players, never advertising their true feelings, Irvine hides behind an amusing mask of laconic insouciance, Herbert behind a cheery grin. Irvine pretends he doesn’t really care, but does; Herbert admits that to perform at his best things have to be going his way. Both are realists. 

"Back-stabbing between the two drivers is not going to get this team anywhere," Irvine acknowledges. Herbert says:

"My one real advantage is that I know more of the people here. but Eddie knew Gary before I did. And I wouldn’t say that I know the car any better because now it’s Gary’s car, not Alan Jenkins’."

A seasoned Martin Brundle plumps marginally in Herbert’s favour:

"He’s established in the team, and these things come down to the chemistry of the people concerned. Right now, Johnny is way ahead in making things happen, and knowing who to go to to get things done. Eddie’s got to find all that out."

In the end, it may come down to this: Herbert couldn’t hack the oversteering Benetton B195 that Schumacher loved. Irvine, though, says he prefers a car even more 'on the nose' than Michael does. "Understeer just kills me." he admits.

The Jaguar R1 currently has a trace of understeer. If Herbert has his way, it will be keeping it.