'Ferrari and McLaren will be the teams to beat and Jordan hopes to be up there in that Championship fight, where the competition will no doubt be closer than ever,' remarked Jordan's Chief Executive, Eddie Jordan. Commenting on the strength Honda will bring to this challenge, he said, 'Honda has an unrivalled success in Formula One, and we have been given the awesome responsibility of adding to that record. We know that the season ahead will be challenging, but with our partnership with Honda, the focus will be on racing and performance and we are determined to achieve positive results and win races.'

For some of the Jordan race team members, travelling to the Australian Grand Prix enables them to return to their native home. Jim Vale, Race Team Manager is from Melbourne, with two team members from the hydraulics department being from a little further afield. Craig Spencer's home town is nearby in Albury, Victoria, and Wayne Greedy is from Mooree, New South Wales.

With motivation running high among the 250 strong work force, there is a united determination to make up for the disappointment of 2000, as Managing Director, Trevor Foster explains, 'After finishing third in the Championship in 1999, 2000 was disappointing for everyone. This was caused by numerous factors and there were opportunities where we could have scored more points and achieved fourth in the Championship. This year, our efforts have been to design a car that behaves in a more consistent manner and concentrate on improved reliability. Early signs during pre-season testing have proved both of these elements to be achieved, giving the whole workforce a boost during a very busy period.'

Over the winter break away from racing, Jordan has worked hard on what Tim Holloway, Head of Engineering, describes as, 'A comprehensive winter testing programme.' The good reliability of the car has allowed the team to work on the chassis performance and achieve pre-season targets. He continued, 'The EJ11 has been designed to extract maximum performance given this year's new regulations, whilst ensuring the best possible reliability and realising our desire to optimise the performance of Honda’s new evolution engine. Although there is now competition between tyre manufacturers in Formula One, Bridgestone will continue to supply Jordan’s tyres in which we have great confidence.'

For the 2001 season, the race team will include some new faces and a revised structure to strengthen the engineering and technical elements. Both Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli will now have two engineers in their car crews, allowing greater assimilation and analysis of data. David Brown joins Frentzen as his senior race engineer, supported by Dominic Harlow. Gabriele Delli Colli joins as the new senior race engineer for Jarno Trulli having already spent three years in F1 as a race engineer, with James Key shadowing him. This structure not only provides a broader skills base and increased knowledge and expertise for the team, but further allows for greater training opportunities. Phil Spencer has been with Jordan for four years but recently moved from Chief Mechanic on the test team, to take up the same position on the race team to replace Tim Edwards, who now has the role of Test Team Manager. Starting with the team as Technical Director on Monday 26 February, Eghbal Hamidy will enjoy a few days at the Jordan Grand Prix HQ before flying down to Melbourne.

Sitting firmly alongside the strengthened Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda team is the new sponsor line-up for 2001. Infineon Technologies, Deutsche Post's sister companies DHL and Danzas, LeggMason Investors and Puma, join existing main sponsors Benson and Hedges, Deutsche Post, Mastercard International, Lucent Technologies, Brother Industries, Imation and Hewlett Packard.

Latest Testing Information
Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli drove for two of the three day test at Silverstone this week, which concluded the team’s pre-season winter test programme. The test team concentrated on final chassis preparations, car set-up, general systems and components checks, with the race team practising full pit stops and refuelling with all three cars. Due to Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda driver commitments on the final day, Mario Haberfeld stood-in at last minute to finalise the shakedown of chassis 03, adapting very well to the car. The winter testing programme achieved a total of 5306 kilometres from the combined mileage of all three EJ11 chassis.

HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN on the Australian Grand Prix
'am looking forward to going to Australia. It's a great country with a wonderful atmosphere and I'm particularly excited about racing again and being back in action after the winter break. We have had some good results in pre-season testing so I think we can do well in Melbourne as it's an important race and my aim is to get points.'

JARNO TRULLI on the Australian Grand Prix
'We are really looking forward to the early races. Being in the car in hot conditions for the duration of the race will certainly be testing after the winter break. We have seen that our car looks competitive, and I feel ready and am looking forward to the season ahead. I have not set myself any goals for this year though as I have done so in the past and it doesn't always work out, so this year there are no targets in my mind, just the aim to get out there and race.'


CHASSIS DETAILS
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Chassis 04
Jarno Trulli Chassis 03
T-car Chassis 02

CIRCUIT DETAILS
Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria 3205, Australia
Circuit Length: 5.303 km
Race Distance: 58 laps = 307.574 km

TIMETABLE (local time)
Time difference is GMT + 11 hours

Friday 2 March
Free Practice 11.00 – 12.00 13.00 – 14.00
Saturday 3 March
Free Practice 09.00 – 09.45 10.15 – 11.00
Qualifying 13.00 – 14.00
Sunday 4 March
Warm-up 09.30 – 10.00
Race 14.00

Jordan Grand Prix