2003 French GP

Located in the centre of France, Circuit Nevers in Magny-Cours was formerly a Club Racing facility before being upgraded to Formula One standards to host its first Grand Prix in 1991.

The track is considered technical with its combination of low speed hairpins, medium speed corners, long straights and fast chicanes and offers a few good overtaking opportunities with its high speed and flowing nature. The smooth surface allows cars to run with a low ride height which creates additional downforce, although the downside to this surface is its harsh effect on the rear tyres. The first two corners at the end of the main straight are very fast, with the first left hander taken almost flat out, followed quickly by a long and fast right hander where a good exit speed is crucial as this dictates a car's speed along the Golf straight up to the Adelaide hairpin. With hot temperatures further playing a part in tyre and driver performance, the Circuit Nevers provides a challenging and usually exciting race.

In the few days since Nurburgring’s reliable finish for both Jordan Ford drivers, the team has executed a rapid turnaround to have its EJ13s ready for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. Jordan approaches the race with anticipation as the Circuit de Nevers holds memories good and bad for the team; including an impressive victory in 1999 with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and a dramatic accident for Giancarlo Fisichella during practice last year, the effects of which prohibited him from participating in the race.

This year Jordan Ford is looking to maximise its potential for performance as well as reliability in order to gain strong qualifying positions and the opportunity to finish in the points.

The Magny-Cours paddock is not always the most exciting venue on the F1 calendar, but it came to life on Thursday night when a group of French police and bailiffs swarmed all over the BAR-Honda garage. A French court had authorised them to seize team assets after a man called France Corbeil and a Monaco-based company called PPGI had taken out a court order against the team.

Ralph Firman and Giancarlo Fisichella were 3rd and 13th in first qualifying - a session which began with rain and wet track conditions, which gradually dried by the time the final runners went out. Jordan Ford set the trend with tyre choice, being the first team to select normal wet and then grooved dry tyres for Fisichella and Firman respectively. Firman lost approximately 30 minutes of time in this morning’s private testing session when an oil pressure sensor failure caused his EJ13 to stop on the circuit but the team’s track time today was otherwise trouble-free.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman line up in 17th and 18th places on the grid for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. Both drivers experienced low grip levels and oversteer however they are hopeful that the team’s strategy will offer a competitive chance in the race.

Gary Anderson, Director of Race and Test Engineering said, “With our strategy we weren’t expecting to qualify very high and we’re just hoping everyone else is doing five stops! Poor grip has been the story of our weekend and at this type of track it’s grip that matters. Every corner depends on it, as it’s all reasonably high speed and it has a slippery surface especially when it is hot. We just haven’t got the grip and we’re not quick enough, it’s quite simple. From a team point of view, it’s disappointing and we’re going through a stage when we have to work harder.”

The Jordan Ford team left Magny-Cours with little to smile about, a retirement for Giancarlo Fisichella and a 15th place for Ralph Firman. Lack of grip was the story of the weekend, as indeed it seemed to be for many.

Following on from Nurburgring a week ago, the BMW-Williams team scored another one-two finish, again with Ralf Schumacher leading home Juan Pablo Montoya.