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Situated on the man-made island of Ill Notre Dame on the St Lawrence river, just across from the beautiful city centre of Montreal, lies the high speed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Part of the track runs alongside the impressive Olympic rowing basin, with a footbridge across providing access to the Formula One paddock. This circuit is one of the best on the calendar for overtaking opportunities, with its flowing straights coupled with tight chicanes and a hairpin. The electric atmosphere in Montreal adds to the racing excitement, as the whole city becomes a Grand Prix carnival zone. The track is a part permanent, part street-circuit, so the surface is always quite dusty with a low grip level at the start of the weekend, although as more rubber is laid on the tarmac, a very smooth surface is formed. With long straights and tight chicanes, medium downforce is required to achieve high speeds on the straights, but sufficient grip for the corners. Jordan Ford moves on to the Canadian Grand Prix, full of anticipation, as the Montreal race has historically been successful for the Northamptonshire-based team. Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot finished 4th and 5th here in 1991 to score Jordan’s first points in Formula One and in 1995 Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine achieved the team’s first double podium. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is also one of Giancarlo Fisichella’s favourite tracks, where he had his first F1 podium with 3rd place in 1997 and also where he scored points for the team last year.
Friday's private test session in Montreal ran smoothly for Jordan Ford today with Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman completing 38 and 41 laps of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Director of Race and Test Engineering Gary Anderson said, "It's gone okay, we've had no real problems. Ralph has had a bit of time to learn the circuit and get up to speed and we've been working on the balance of Giancarlo's car. We're reasonably content with our start to the weekend so let's wait and see where we go from here."
Free practice was interupted by rain which began to fall ten minutes into the session, so Jordan Ford's morning test session, which was dry, may prove to be an advantage at the Canadian Grand Prix. Although the morning's planned programme was disrupted by inconsistent weather and track conditions, Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman were able to collect some data in preparation for this afternoon's qualifying and the rest of the weekend.
Ralph Firman was travelling at very high speeds well before taking to the track today in Montreal. Stopping off in Washington on the way to Canada, the Jordan Ford driver was strapped into the cockpit of a US Navy Hornet F18 jet. Very trusting these Americans, as Ralph was actually allowed to take the controls for a brief moment, although not when the jet made a low flying pass over spectators sunbathing in the harbour below. Also along for the ride was former Jordan driver, now ITV commentator Martin Brundle and you can see what the two brave lads got up to on Sunday’s programme before the Canadian GP broadcast.
Ralph Firman finished a fantastic fourth quickest in today’s qualifying session. It was the Jordan Ford driver’s best performance this season by a long way. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve witnessed the first qualifying session of the year held entirely in the rain and Ralph, running fifth from last today, was helped slightly by the fact the track was at its wettest in the middle period. This is one reason why Giancarlo Fisichella in the second EJ13 is much further back in 18th slot. Firman commented, “I had a reasonably good lap and was a little bit luckier with the weather than others were. The important thing is not to make any big mistakes and the car felt really good on these tyres so hopefully it will keep raining for tomorrow.”
Saturday free practice took place in continuing wet weather conditions in Montreal, with the Bridgestone runners demonstrating a clear advantage over their rivals. Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman completed their programmes and were fairly satisfied with the pace of their EJ13s. Gary Anderson said, "All went according to plan this morning, although it's difficult because there are so many different weather conditions as it rains harder or starts to dry, so in a sense we are playing catch-up all the time. We tried various downforce settings, tyres, fuel levels and set-up configurations and we are reasonably competitive for where we want to be. Now we need to make the right decision for qualifying and tomorrow's race."
The promise demonstrated by Jordan Ford in this morning’s free practice was not realised in qualifying, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman limited to 16th and 19th positions on the grid. Fisichella and Firman were satisfied with the car’s balance in the free practice session, during which track conditions were wet, however in this afternoon’s dry qualifying session, both drivers locked up the brakes at the first corner, impairing performance for the remainder of the lap. Fisichella said, “Obviously it’s been a very frustrating qualifying session. I went into turn one and locked up the front tyres in a big way and lost the line. Then it happened again just under the bridge and I went into the grass, losing quite a lot of time. I am very disappointed because maybe with a good lap I had the possibility to be in the top 10. Anyway the race is a long one, so we’ll see.”
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