The car will never go on the track but will be featured in an exhibition

Jaguar spokesman Nav Sidhu

Jaguar spokesman Nav Sidhu said it was a unique deal.

He said: "This is a first for a Formula One car, Jaguar and Damien Hirst. The three parts have come together and he agreed to do the project quite recently.

"All the paint has been taken off a Formula One car and he has been given it as a blank sheet."

'Early stages'

However, fans of Jaguar drivers Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa will be disappointed to learn that the designs will not feature on their race-day cars.

Mr Sidhu said: "The car will never go on the track but will be featured in an exhibition."

A spokesman for Hirst said: "The designs aren't finished yet. It's still in the very early stages."

Hirst will follow in the footsteps of artist Andy Warhol, who hand-painted a BMW in the early 1980s.

Eddie Irvine drives for Jaguar

The Art Car was part of an exhibition entitled Andy Warhol: His Art and Life (1928-1987), which toured eastern Europe last year.

Hirst is one of the best-known members of the generation of conceptual artists called Young British Artists.

He has produced some of the movement's iconic works - such as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, consisting of a whole shark in a display case.

The artist recently announced the creation of a giant new artwork to publicise the issue of green house gases in the atmosphere.

He will represent the amount of carbon dioxide he generates in a year - about 15 tonnes - by arranging 441 empty gas canisters in a block.

Hirst has also shown to be talented in other fields - as well as owning a stake in Pharmacy restaurant in Notting Hill, he recorded the World Cup pop single Vindaloo, which reached number two in the UK charts in 1998.