Jordan’s Chief Executive, Eddie Jordan, is clear about what he wants for the 2000 Formula One World Championship. "We have McLaren and Ferrari in our sights. If they drop their guard, we will be in there to challenge them. I will be bitterly disappointed if we do anything less than finish third," he says openly. "I want to do at least as well as we did last year in terms of our placing in the championship, but I want to do it by winning more points. To stand still or go backwards is not what we want. Whilst there will obviously be a strong challenge from Williams and Jaguar, without being disrespectful to them, it is up to them to catch us."

"Winning is the only thing that I can think about at the moment. It is hard to describe, but it is like a drug I suppose. It is what makes me wake up in the morning. This feeling is the same throughout the team which makes me feel very proud." There is indeed a strong, cohesive desire for victory at Jordan Grand Prix’s Silverstone headquarters. The 200 strong work force has endured probably the hardest ever ‘closed season’ working long hours to design, manufacture, build and then test the Jordan Mugen-Honda EJ10. As Jordan’s Managing Director, Trevor Foster explains, "There is no doubt that everyone in our factory has had a very hard few months. With the season now starting, the hard work will have to continue in order for us to keep developing and improving our package. But everyone is attacking work with a real spirit - people might be exhausted, but they know the rewards on track are there for us."

Over the winter break away from racing, Jordan Grand Prix has put together what it believes is its most competitive package yet. "I feel very satisfied going into this 2000 season," says Eddie Jordan. "We have made big improvements with the car, the engine, the driver line up and on the marketing side too, with a fantastic group of sponsors backing us. So everything has moved up a pace. But of course this will be true for all the teams, so what we need to see is how much of a step we have made compared with the others, and particularly in comparison to McLaren and Ferrari."

"There is always a balance to make between reliability and speed. The two do not necessarily marry well together, and we will have to see what happens in Melbourne. We have certainly stretched things to the limit this year in our push for the Championship and we will have to see how this affects the performance on track in the early races."

Both Benson and Hedges Jordan drivers, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli are feeling up-beat about the first race of the year. "I am looking forward to going to Australia" says rentzen. "It is a great country with a wonderful atmosphere. I am particularly excited about racing again and being back in action after the winter break. Bringing all the test results together this year we think we will do well in Melbourne. It is an important race and my target is to make points." "We have seen that our car looks competitive and that it is better than the 1999 car," adds Trulli. "We are really looking forward to the races. We did have some little problems in terms of reliability, but we have solved them and are confident everything is going to be okay for the Australian Grand Prix. I believe we should do well in qualifying. For sure the race is another thing in terms of it being the first time we will run the car in hot conditions for a long race, but then that is the same for all the teams."