Jordan Test at Jerez. Day One

First Taste
By Phil Giles
December 3 2003

Jordan's EJ13 took to the track for the first time since running at Macau with two new drivers at the wheel. The day saw Nick finish in 9th and Jarek Janis finished 10th after his first 61 laps in an F1 car.

“It was a nice day, my first time in a Formula One car after a few weeks and my first day with the Jordan team." said Nick.  "I was quite happy with how the test worked, although we had a problem with the gearbox, a lot of red flags and unfortunately some rain in the afternoon.  I got familiar with the car after a couple of outings, and with my engineer I’ve identified a few small changes I’d still like to make.  The car was better to drive than I expected and it has been a nice atmosphere - I get on well with the people in the team.  It was good and I’m looking forward to the next two days.”

Jarek said, “The first thing is to get used to the car and I really enjoyed today.  It was fantastic to drive in F1, everything went alright and I did a couple of tests with aerodynamics and tyres.  I am trying to start slowly and not go crazy immediately so tomorrow if we are lucky with dry weather I’m going to push more.”

Jordan Test Engineer Gerry Hughes said, “Today’s programme consisted of familiarisation with a small amount of work on chassis, set-up and tyres.  It was a slightly frustrating start for Heidfeld as there were a few things that lost us a bit of track time and the weather has been changeable towards the end of the day, but nevertheless he familiarised himself quickly and seems to be getting comfortable with the car and the team. Janis has gone reasonably well: again, the majority of the day was spent familiarising himself with a Formula One car and he did a good job.”

The EJ13 is again at the bottom end of the timesheet, however the differences today are very clear.  Jordan are working on development of parts for the EJ14 so the car is a bit of a mishmash.  With two new drivers both needing to get to know the team and the car, things are certainly expected to improve tomorrow.

Ralph Firman will be testing with Nick Heidfeld on Friday as per Ralph's official site.