Ready To Bite Back (Jordan Grand Prix)

Member Name: thecoin

Product:	Jordan Grand Prix
Date:	19/01/01 (102 review reads)
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After the year Jordan had in 1999 a lot of pundits expected them to be at the front end of the Grand Prix field battling for race wins in 2000. After all,the team had a driver in contention for the World Drivers Championship towards the end of 99 and the they seemed to have a lot going for them as they moved into the 2000 season.Unfortunatly things went horribly wrong for the Silverstone based outfit.The team suffered severe reliability problems with the EJ10 which hampered many test sessions and races in 2000,also the team suffered its fair share of bad luck with incidents happening beyond their control which forced their drivers out of races.Examples I can think of to back up that point are the incidents at Monza at the second chicane and at Spa when Jarno Trulli was knocked out of the race by Jenson Button. Also technical progress was hampered with the news just a couple of races into the season that technical director Mike Gascoyne was moving to Benneton in 2001. Jordan sent Gascoyne away on paid leave as he didn’t want the talented designer being a part of the design for the 2001 car. With the loss of the man who obviously knew the most about the car considering he designed it Jordan struggled with the staff they had to gain reliability and performance and in the end finished the season a very disappointing 6th in the constructors championship. The one good thing Jordan could take away from last season is when they could find reliability and get a good setup for a circuit the EJ10 could perform and on two main occasions found itself up at the front battling with the Ferrari’s and McLarens. At Monaco when Jarno Trulli qualified it on the front row and also at Spa when Trulli again qualified his car in the top 3 the car the car actually looked a good machine but far too many times in 2000 Jordan found itself battling with the midfielders.

As the 2001 season approaches Jordan has launched it’s car fairly early to try and get rid of any r
eliability trouble early on (similar to what Jaguar is doing).With a works Honda engine deal under his bealt Eddie Jordan has high hopes for his new car the EJ11 and also has strong competition from the BAR team who also have works Honda engines. Honda have an awesome reputation in Grand Prix racing for making championship winning engines and Jordan believes his team has the responsibility to deliver another world title to Honda which would realise his dream as team manager.The car has had a major overhaul from the one that raced in 2000,the team has worked extremely hard to try to overcome the reliability trouble it suffered in 2000 whilst still retaining the cars speed and performance. Following Mike Gascoyne’s move and also the resignation of another chief designer at Jordan Mike Smith Jordan have signed highly rated aerodynamicist Eghbal Hamidy from Arrows. He has only been signed within the week so has yet to have any impact in the design of the 2001 car but he could be the key to getting Jordan back to the front of the grid.He was one of the main designers of Arrows F1’s car last year which proved to be a real surprise package. One critiscm of the man though has come from inside the Arrows camp where several members of the team speculated at how good he was at preparing aerodynamics for cars on high downforce circuits.Arrows struggled to perform on high downforce circuits last year but Eddie Jordan believes Hamidy is good enough and has every confidence in him.This assumption has been backed up by both of Jordan’s drivers for the 2001 season Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli.Frentzen however fears that the new F1 regulations introduced by the FIA may hamper the teams progress. Frentzen believes that due to these changes in aerodynamic and electronic regulations the teams with the most resources are going to be able to adapt their cars quicker than the teams with the less resources. He believes there will be an even bigger gap between Mc
Laren,Ferrari and the rest of the field than there was last year as those two teams at the moment have the greatest resources available to them and also have the most experience in using machinery such as the wind tunnel. Well that’s the background to what’s been happening in preparation for 2001 so lets have a closer look at the car in question the Jordan EJ11 :

Gearbox
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The team have opted with a seven speed gearbox after using a six speed one last year.All the transmission parts have been produced by Jordan themselves with the main focus being on reliability.

Engine
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The team this year uses a works Honda Engine which is much smaller than last years Mugen Honda which the team used. Jordan has high hopes of this engine as Honda is pulling out all the stops to be successful in 2001.With a years Grand Prix experience behind them again with BAR last year Jordan could have landed a plum deal here.

Suspension
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The team has opted for what is the norm with F1 cars nowadays with the suspension. Both front and rear the suspension features composite pushrods which activate chassis mounted Penske dampers and torsion bars.

Front Wing
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The most radical of all changes from the EJ11’s predecessor is the front wing. Its very similar to the trend being set by Jaguar which is for its to have a wide-open centre and a lower central section.

Tyres
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Jordan is sticking with the Bridgestone tyre suppliers for 2001 rather than making the change to Michelin like some of the other teams. Both of Jordan’s drivers are confident that the tyre will have a distinct early season advantage over the new Michelin tyres which other teams such as BMW Williams and Jaguar will be running.

The Final verdit reliabilty vs speed
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Last years car was a very radical design over its successful predecessor in 99 so the team has in some ways done something similar to Jaguar and gone back to basics with the engineering. A lot of effort has been concentrated on making the car more reliable than it was in 2000 and if it can retain the speed that was shown only on rare occasions last season Jordan should be in for a season which is a lot more successful than last year.

So we’ve had a look at the car now what about the drivers.Well Jordan have retained both drivers from last year. A lot of speculation last year circling was that Heinz Harald Frentzen would move to Jaguar, he didn’t though and instead decided to sign for another year at Jordan. Frentzen seems to enjoy the friendly atmosphere of Jordan a lot more than the atmosphere he found when he was struggling at Williams. He’s a very talented guy and given the right car could really take the challenge to Ferrari and McLaren on certain circuits. He’s vastly experienced so expect him to be at the right end of the grid this year.As for Jarno Trulli we have never really seen him in a car competitive enough to battle with the big boys in his F1 career. There’s no doubt the guy has talent proved by his superb qualifying performances last year at Monaco and Spa but battling with the front runners such as Schumacher and Hakkinen is a lot different to battling with the midfield bunch and he is still to prove his race craft when battling with the top drivers.

To sum up my preview of the 2001 car I would say expect to see Jordan up at the front of the grid possibly taking the fight to Ferrari and McLaren at certain circuits. As has been stated a lot of emphasis has been made on making the car reliable which was the main sticking point to the 2000 car. Don’t expect miracles and for them to be up fighting for the World Championship but expect a big improvement on last
year and for them to possibly claim back their third in the Constuctors Championship which they claimed in 99. Anyway here’s to a successful season for the Buzzin Hornets.

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