Eddie Irvine yesterday deepened a war of words with Ferrari number two Rubens Barrichello, claiming the Brazilian was illogical.

Earlier this week, Irvine had said Barrichello was a moaner whose popularity within Ferrari had waned. Yesterday Barrichello hit back at the Irishman, saying that the Jaguar driver should "shut up and concentrate on his job".

"I remember when I was in that car and it was white," said the Brazilian, referring to his days at Stewart Grand Prix, which two years ago was bought by Ford and rebranded as Jaguar. "I think I scored more points than he has done in that car."

Irvine, though, dismissed Barrichello's riposte. "Whenever we were team-mates, I blew him off the track," said the Irishman.

"When I was in the same car as he has now and it was red, I scored a lot more points than he has. It's ridiculous. Whenever I get asked a question I try to give a logical, reasonable answer. Rubens struggles with logic."

Irvine went on to reiterate his opinions of Barrichello, again saying that the Brazilian does "nothing but complain" and added that Barrichello had failed to stage a challenge to Michael Schumacher's dominance at Ferrari.

"As well as that, he's well off the pace at the moment," he said. "I think the pressure's getting to him. Michael's driving better than ever. I think the pressure of winning the championship is off Michael and he's performing they way he can do. Rubens is a good driver but he's not in Michael's league.

"I think he's done a good job at Ferrari though," he concluded. "He deserves to stay. Ferrari likes stability and he brings that."

The pair have led strangely mirrored careers in F1, starting as team-mates at Jordan in 1993, a rivalry eventually won by Irvine in 1995 when he outpaced the Brazilian 11-7 in qualifying.

When they parted company with Jordan at the end of that year, Irvine took up the second driver job at Ferrari, spending four years there and narrowly missing out on the drivers' title in 1999. Barrichello, by contrast, fell down the F1 ladder to F1 newcomers Stewart and spent three seasons at the team owned and run by triple world champion Jackie Stewart.

When Ford stepped in and bought Stewart midway through 1999, the pair swapped roles again, Irvine landing a lucrative three-year deal with the new Jaguar team and Barrichello realising a dream by joining Ferrari.

Since then, Barrichello has been the one to profit, stepping into a championship challenging car and scoring his maiden GP win at Hockenheim last year. Irvine by contrast, has struggled to turn Jaguar from back-row laughing stocks into midfield terriers.

This appeared to have been achieved in Monaco in May, when Irvine secured his first podium finish since Japan 1999. Since then Irvine has battled regularly on the fringes of the points, finally taking on the Jordans, BARs and Saubers currently inhabiting the midfield.

On the eve of his team's home grand prix, the development is one that is extremely satisfying for Irvine.

"We can now go forward in the races, which is a lot more interesting. I'm having a lot more fun," he said.

"We could race with the bigger boys if we could qualify just behind them. But we can't get close to them in qualifying. I think it's that the Michelins are much better race tyres than qualifying tyres - at least on our car they are. The Bridgestones have the advantage in qualifying, we have the advantage in the race.

"We probably don't do enough to change the car into a qualifying performance car but we are working on that. I think this step for this weekend should move us up the grid, if the tyres perform well," he said.

"The weather for the weekend is saying showers though and that's not ideal for the Michelins. But the forecast isn't written in stone."