In 1999 Michael Schumacher, the "#1 driver" for Ferrari was injured during a race at Silverstone. Irvine was made the #1 driver. The team put all their efforts towards Irvine winning a driver's championship. It wasn't successful, but Irvine did place second in the championship. Irvine left Ferrari after that season because he was frustrated with Ferrari's policy on team orders, which meant that one driver was labelled as "being #1." So, Irvine joined the new Jaguar Racing team in 2000, where he finally became the lead driver. However, the car was not competitive and reliable, so Jaguar, despite having lots of experience with Irvine, had little results. Irvine obtained the only two podiums Jaguar would ever see, and Irvine retired from Formula One after 2002.