Slow Start for Jordan

18th
By Phil Giles
May 3 2003

Jordan had a slow start to their Spanish Grand Prix weekend qualifying in 15th and 18th for the Saturday Qualifying session. The Barcelona Circuit is not a Jordan favourite. Indeed, Giancarlo seems to have more or less written this weekend off, preferring to race at Austria and Canada.

The car experienced difficulty with it's balance.

"Well today was nothing special." Said Fisichella. "We didn’t really expect to be in good shape as this circuit is so difficult when it comes to balance and it seems we can’t get our car to suit the track. We are working on it as we need a big improvement for tomorrow."

"Although I’m a bit disappointed overall, I felt it was a reasonable lap." Said Ralph. "It’s encouraging that I’m not too far away from Giancarlo’s time. We were looking promising this morning so hopefully we can find that pace again and move up the grid."

Gary Anderson admitted; "I suppose it has not been our best day. We lost our way somewhere at the end of the practice session to be honest and never really got on top of it. We were able to do a 1:17.9s lap this morning and I was pretty happy with that. We should be able to do it now as well so we have to find out what happened between practice and qualifying and we are working on that. Ralph had a bit too much understeer on the lap, although the car was consistent and balance is very important here because if it’s out by even a little bit, you lose a lot of lap time. He knows this circuit and has been doing a very competent job."

Considering the amount of time that Jordan have spent at the circuit during the pre-season testing, it's disappointing to see that their times have not improved.

Ralph is constantly under fire from the press with recent speculation that Antonio Pizzonia isn't the only one under threat.  Eddie has gone a long way to support Ralph and has suggested that he needs time to relax into the job.  It's easy to criticise the team and Ralph's comparative performance to Giancarlo, however it must be remembered that Ralph is only taking part in his 5th Grand Prix,  Giancarlo has more than 100 under his belt. 

One point also to be remembered is that Ralph's principal sponsor is the same as the Teams.  While Jordan need the money brought in by Benson and Hedges, Ralph will remain in the second EJ13.