Jordan suffer reliability issues in Spain

Work to be done.
By Phil Giles
May 9 2004

Jordan suffered a dismal afternoon in Spain. Both Giorgio Pantano and Nick Heidfeld failed to finish the race, despite promising practice and qualifying sessions.

Nick got off to a bad start, dropping places with a slow getaway, which was probably indicative of the problems to come later in the race.  A hydraulics-related gearbox problem stopped Nick on lap 34 where Giorgio stopped on lap 54.

Giorgio said "We did a very good start and I made up a few places right at the beginning, but then after we started pit stops a problem began with the hydraulics. Eventually it got so bad there was nothing I could do and the car developed other hydraulic related problems, so I just had to stop. Naturally I am disappointed."

"I lost hydraulic pressure, then the differential shut down, up and down shifts stopped working, and finally the gearbox went altogether." said Nick.  "I have mixed feelings about the race. One thing is we have to work more on the start. Also, I knew in qualifying that I did not like the feel of my first set of tyres but in the race the second and third sets felt much better. My lap times were quicker, I was in front of Jaguar and it wasn’t too bad. The positive thing is that we have been a lot quicker this race and the last one so we are definitely improving. But we don’t only have to improve lap times, we also have to improve reliability at the same time. If we carry on improving at the current rate, I’m quite happy. Although not finishing is always frustrating, motivation will never be a problem because I enjoy driving so much. I’m looking forward to Monaco!"

James Robinson said "A character-building day for Jordan Ford, you might say. In the race we had two technical problems with hydraulics which finally put both cars out. It’s good that we showed some increased pace this weekend but obviously we need to guarantee we can get two cars to the end of the race before we can think about a points finishing position."

Jordan are to test in Paul Ricard next week in preparation for the next and most glamorous race of the season in two weeks in Monaco.  After thatthe team test Jos Verstappen at Silverstone.