Jordan's Monaco Roundup

By Phil Giles
May 24 2005

It's all change for Formula One at the weekend when the circus hits the Nurburgring. The aggregated qualifying system is to be scrapped with the teams going back to a single flying lap on Saturday afternoon.

Once again us ordinary punters loose out as it will be a long Sunday morning before anything moves on race day.  Anyway...

Jordan move on from a fairly poor weekend in Monte Carlo.  Lots of rumour and media speculation about the future of the team, just four short months after changing hands and a it has to be said weak performance on the track.  For the first time in a long time, the team was out qualified by the PS05 Minardi's.  The teams race pace however was a step above the Italians.

Narain got the car to lap 23 after qualifying in 16th place.  It seems that he hit the barriers at some point and damaged the hydraulic system in the car.  The TV showed him coming in for three stops before retiring from the race.  "It is really a pity I had to retire." he said.  "I made a decent start and then I had a touch with the barrier, which damaged the hydraulic system. This explains why we had to pit early in the race. The team did a good job to try to fix it but unfortunately it was not possible and I had to retire. The whole weekend was very difficult for us, so now we have to make sure we will do better in the European Grand Prix next week."

The expected race of attrition didn't happen and Tiago's safe 'n steady style brought the EJ15 home in 15th place.  "Six race finishes in a row is an important thing obviously in order to collect as much information as possible. After this weekend, we need to do a lot of things to improve the car because we have been struggling throughout the three days." he said.  "It was a hard race on the car and tyres but also mentally as we had to stay focussed in order to stay on track, not make any mistake, let faster drivers pass by and bring the car to the finish. It is a bit frustrating as so many cars made it to the end but if we look at the positive side, we were one of them."

Trevor Carlin put some positive spin on the weekend.  "Unfortunately Narain Karthikeyan retired after a small broach with the barriers and damaged the hydraulic system on the car. Tiago Monteiro did a good steady job and brought the car home even though he had a few handling problems. This is another race finish for Jordan Grand Prix and a 100% finish rate for Tiago." he said.