Eddie vows to get Jordan back on fast track

EDDIE JORDAN has vowed to make his team a Formula One force again after several seasons in the doldrums.

He has told his staff that Jordan can be a 'team to be reckoned with' as they prepare for the new season which gets under way in Australia tomorrow week.

Jordan brought his 200-strong workforce together at the Silverstone factory ahead of yesterday's final test of the EJ13 at the nearby track before it is shipped off to Melbourne.

"We have produced a great-looking new car and, with the support of loyal sponsors such as Benson and Hedges, plus the new involvement of Ford Cosworth with a competitive engine, we can look forward to the start of the season with some confidence," said Jordan.

The team finished a career-best third in the constructors' championship in 1999 when Germany's Heinz-Harald Frentzen won two races with team-mate Damon Hill having scored their maiden victory the year before.

But Jordan have been unable to add to the victory count or maintain those heady heights, slipping to sixth the following year, fifth in 2001 and sixth again last season when Jordan were forced to shed staff.

But Jordan is confident his driver line-up of Italy's Giancarlo Fisichella and British rookie Ralph Firman, powered by Cosworth engines, can take the team back up the grid in 2003.

"In Giancarlo we have one of the best drivers in Formula One, while Ralph has already proven himself to be extremely mature in his approach," added Jordan.

"Our goal is to put Jordan back up there as a major threat let's not forget that only four constructors currently in Formula One have won grands prix in the past five years, and we are one of them."

Jordan dismissed the speculation over the winter regarding the team's financial plight which initially left him looking for a paying second driver before he received a financial boost from Benson & Hedges.

"We are a profitable team, prudently managed, careful with our costs, and we have been able to weather the storm of economic downturn better than most," insisted Jordan.

Meanwhile, World Rally Championship supremo David Richards says dropping Rally Australia from the 2003 WRC calendar could harm the series and he hopes the spat between motorsport's governing body, the FIA, and the event's promoters, the Western Australia Tourist Commission (WATC), can be resolved soon.

The Australian event is in danger of being dropped from this year's calendar when the Rallies Commission meets next month following a wrangle between the FIA and the WATC.

"Teams would be very sad if anything happened to Rally Australia," said Richards. "It would concern investors in the world rally championship. It is quite critical to the future of the series that a sensible arrangement is reached."