Rogue Profile of Jordan

“Clearly a disappointing qualifying session, especially here in Italy and after yesterday’s encouraging performance. The situation is simply that we are on the limit of our performance, although I believe I would have qualified higher had I not had the hydraulic problems with my racecar,” Fisichella said. “When I took the T car out it did not feel as good as my car. I hope to have a better day tomorrow and finish the race, if possible in the points.”

“A disappointing end to the weekend,” Sato sighed. “I was on my fourth lap with everything working fine until then, when suddenly I felt a problem with the gear which left me stuck in first gear. I made it back to the pits and the team tried to set the electrics, but the same problem re-occurred as soon as I went out so I had to pull over and retire from the race.”

“Not a good day!” Fisichella said. “I had a loss of hydraulic pressure which meant I could not change gears. I am very disappointed as I haven’t been able to finish any races because of various problems and it is clear we are not competitive enough. I hope to improve things for the future.”

“It was difficult day for me. I had a late start due to trouble with our initial set-up, which took nearly 10 minutes to fix. Then we had problems with the electrical systems which spoilt my first session although we were able to carry out back-to-back brake tests for the race, which gave us some positive data,” Sato explained.

“We were in good shape early on but near the end of the session I lost all power and had to stop on the track, probably at the furthest point from the pit lane. The last ten minutes of the first session were lost while I got back to the garage and also I lost the first ten minutes of the second session while the team finished the repairs,” Sato said.

“It was a tough qualifying for the team. I had a problem with the nose on my second run and the team is investigating the reason,” he said. “My first run wasn’t bad but then the car had a lot of nervousness in high speed corners. The track temperatures were rising all the time and the tyres were graining, so I lost grip and couldn’t improve on my time. I think I did a 100% job but another tenth could have put me a couple of places higher.”

At the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix Minardi team principal, Paul Stoddart threatened
to walk away from Formula One after a consortium of four teams, lead by McLaren
informed him in the paddock that they were taking him to arbitration to recover
the early fought over television funds. The Australian was paid the monies originally
intended for Prost earlier in the season after coming to an amicable agreement
with Bernie Ecclestone.

Stoddart fully believed he was entitled to the funds and Bernie Ecclestone
agreed. Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, Dave Richards and Frank Williams have other
ideas and want the cash distributed evenly. According to Stoddart, this action
will kill his minnow team, as he cannot afford a $2,000,000 fee to fight the matter
in court.

"I will turn my back on Formula One if this travesty of injustice is
allowed to proceed," Stoddart said. "I cannot afford four months
of my time nor the $2 million of costs that it will take to fund a challenge to
this. I have circulated a document to them (other teams) from Bernie’s solicitors
to me putting me on notice that they have now received the papers for this to
go to arbitration. At this time, with all the problems Formula One really does
have, for this to happen for me is nothing short of self-destruction."

"In the last 12 months we have been through so many problems, the sport
as a whole, and we’ve lost two teams. Now we are going to lose three, as I can’t
afford to fight this. Maybe there’s another one that’s not so steady as well.
Do they really want eight teams in Melbourne next year? I have gone through hell
and back again this year and this is the icing on the cake. It’s bad enough having
to deal with the problems I have had to deal with, but when you get knives in
your back from your co-team principals, I’m not interested. It’s a case of ‘Is
this the straw that breaks the camel’s back, do I want to be involved in a sport
with such individuals in it?’ I’m not sure that I do."

Fisichella’s endurance battle failed at the end of lap fifty-three when he wrestled
his limping EJ13 back to the Jordan Garage. A faulty gearshift was to blame and
as the situation was hopeless, he reluctantly drove back to the pits to retire
from the race. Until then, he had given a sterling performance, one which saw
him rise to fourth prior to his second pit stop, when the fuel cap remained stuck
in the closed position, forcing the team to remove it entirely in order to refuel.

"Well, lots of things happened in the race. First of all I lost three
or four positions at Turn 6 on lap 1 when I lost the car a little under braking,"
the Italian explained. "Then when Ralph had his accident bits of debris
hit my car smashing off the wing mirror and damaging my rear wing. After that
I was running at a good pace but we had the problem on the pit stop with the fuel
cover and then at the end of the race the car had some gear problem."

Ralph Firman delivered a strong drive in the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix to earn
his first Formula One finish. He eventually brought the car home in eleventh put
it could have been so much more.

During his single pit stop, (which was delayed by a pit launch problem,) the
planned volume of fuel was not completely delivered. The resulting low fuel level
compromised his second stint, which had offered a ninth place finish and as a
result he lost a place on the last lap.

"It was a good race with the car showing reliability," he
said. "It was very very hard work but I had some good battles and it’s
great to finish. In the pit stop the car wouldn’t pull away with the normal system,
I don’t know why, but we did a manual start and that was okay, but I lost a bit
of time and it is a shame I ran out of fuel on the last lap. The team has done
an excellent job this weekend and I’m looking forward to Brazil."

Coming down the start finish straight to complete the seventeenth lap, Formula
1 Rookie, Ralf Firman was pursuing his teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella and the
Toyota of Olivier Panis. As he approached the critical braking area before turn
one his EJ13′s right front suspension disintegrated.

The right front wheel with its associated suspension sheered off the car and
dragged along by its tether, nearly taking the rookie’s head off. Firman battled
to keep control of the tri-wheeled car but the task proved insurmountable. With
a lack of left side grip, the rear of the car pitched turned to the right pitching
the car in to a spin, collecting Panis’ TF103 in an explosion of debris. Both
cars were out of the race and given that the debris littered the track, the safety
car had to leave it garage, triggering a flurry of pit-lane activity.

"I had another suspension failure," he said. "It’s
a shame and of course I’m extremely disappointed. Fisi did a rally good job finishing
second and getting the team some points."

Ralf Firman’s disastrous weekend may have produced a satisfactory result if the
race stopped, twelve laps early on lap fifty-one. After a torrid time in qualifying
Firman started his race form the pit lane and kept his nose clean running with
teammate, Fisichella.

On the fifty-second lap, the Jordan’s engine cried "enough" and there
was little the Englishman could do except pull of the track and retire from the
race.

Ralph said. "Later I had a clutch problem and after a couple of laps
the engine just packed up. I’m looking forward to the Silverstone test next week,
as the time in the car will be a great help to me. I think I still need to improve
myself in qualifying but in the race I always seem to do a reasonably good lap
time."