Jordan Test Update

Good test
By Phil Giles (10-02-03)
February 10 2003

Day one of Jordan's third test session saw driving duties swapped from Giancarlo Fisichella to F1 Rookie Ralph Firman. Ralph has spent the morning getting his first taste of an F1 car and ran trouble free for most of the day.

As expected, Ralph's times were down on Fisichella's, however as Ralph gets used to the car, we can certainly expect the times to fall.

Ralph lapped the circuit in 1m13.46 seconds, down by two seconds on Fisi's time from the week before last.  With 73 laps completed, Ralph was pleased at his progress as was Jordan's Chief Engineer Gary Anderson. “It was a relatively trouble-free day with just the normal niggles you get in 73 laps.  Ralph is settling himself into the car and getting used to working with the team.  He did a very competent job, getting used to left-foot braking again and trying various set-up changes to get to know to car.”

Ralph said, “It went well today and I’m really happy. Although it’s not my first F1 test it’s been really good to be able to drive a car without being under any pressure because it’s not about the quickest lap time of the day, but rather getting to know the team and learning the car and circuit properly.  Obviously F1 cars are hugely quicker than others I’ve driven, their braking capacity is immense, and they are much better in high speed corners.  It’s great that I was able to get so many laps in today.”

Even better to note was that on his first day, Ralph split the two Renaults and was only a second slower than Juan Pablo Montoya.  A very encouraging display from the 27 year old .