2003 German GP

Travelling through the small village of Hockenheim you could be forgiven for thinking that you've taken a wrong turn on the way to the Hockenheimring, before seeing the circuit's main entrance which almost looks out of place. Nestled deep in the forest, the circuit was until recently one of the fastest on the F1 calendar with incredibly long straights and speeds well over 200mph. For 2002 the straights were replaced with a more conventional circuit layout that includes at least one corner, the hairpin, to facilitate overtaking. The circuit's grandstands, when full of klaxon-wielding spectators, provide an awesome noise and sight.

Hungarian F3000 driver Zsolt Baumgartner carried out a 50km shakedown at Silverstone’s south circuit on Monday 28 July. He will drive the third Jordan Ford EJ13 in the private test sessions on Friday 1 August at the German Grand Prix and Friday 22 August at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Looking ahead to this F1 opportunity, Baumgartner commented, "I was really happy to get a chance to drive an F1 car in normal track conditions. I drove the Jordan EJ-12 last year at the Hungarian Grand Prix but that was just a three-lap demonstration run and this was very different."

"Hockenheim, even with its recent changes, is a track which requires less than maximum downforce, so we believe that we should be in better position with our car set-up than at some other tracks. We have got an engine performance step from Cosworth at this race and as engines are very important here hopefully that will help us.

In Thursday’s FIA press conference, Michael Schumacher was asked about rumours that Jacques Villeneuve would be joining him at Ferrari. “I don’t see any seriousness in that (rumour)” he replied, before adding a catty “I think we want to improve our situation!”

Friday testing was productive for Jordan Ford and for the first time the team ran three cars during the private track session. Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralph Firman and Zsolt Baumgartner completed over 120 laps between them and despite minor problems all three collected valuable data.

Gary Anderson, Director of Race and Test Engineering, said, "We made reasonable use of the third driver today and Zsolt did a competent job.

After doing three demonstration laps in EJ12 at last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Zsolt Baumgartner has been back behind the wheel of a Jordan Ford on three occasions, culminating in today’s two hour test session, prior to the start of free practice for the German GP.

“I did a 50 kilometre shakedown at Silverstone and some straight line testing at Santa Pod prior to today,” said the Hungarian. “This was the first real test, completing 47 laps. I enjoyed it enormously.

Following a successful testing session this morning the Jordan Ford team enjoyed a fairly productive practice session ahead of qualifying this afternoon. Giancarlo completed 17 laps with his fastest time being 1:17.050 and Ralph recorded a quickest time of 1:17.842.

Following relatively positive sessions in this morning’s private testing and free practice, climbing temperatures once again hampered Jordan Ford’s qualifying efforts with Ralph Firman and Giancarlo Fisichella setting 16th and 17th quickest times with fairly clean laps.

The team and drivers are working hard to find the most advantageous set-up for the remainder of the weekend.

Both practice sessions were completed without incident this morning for the Jordan Ford team. Giancarlo recorded a best lap of 1:17.583 and completed a total of 33 laps of the Hockenheim circuit whilst team mate Ralph clocked a best time of 1:18.403 during his 35 laps.

However things didn't go quite so smoothly for the competition with a bumpy ride for Michael Schumacher and a disappointing practice session for McLaren driver David Coulthard as he crashed out.

Jordan Ford was able to make the best of conditions and the car in today’s final qualifying at Hockenheim, setting the quickest time of the Bridgestone runners after the Ferraris.

Despite temperatures soaring over 30 degrees, Giancarlo Fisichella and his engineer found a good car balance during the morning and a clean qualifying lap put the Italian 12th on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Firman experienced oversteer, particularly on the final sector of his lap, and will line up in 18th position.

The German Grand Prix ended in disappointment for Jordan Ford with neither Ralph Firman nor Giancarlo Fisichella finishing the race. Firman collided with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and then Justin Wilson at the first corner, as cars suddenly slowed to avoid an accident which had taken place further up the field.

Fisichella struggled with electronics problems throughout the race until he had to retire two laps from the end when a water leak caused the engine to overheat.