Eddie pondering selling part of Jordan

EDDIE JORDAN is considering selling a large chunk of his Formula One team to a major car manufacturer in an effort to get the struggling Silverstone-based outfit back towards the summit of the sport.

Ever since Team Jordan entered F1 in 1991, the Dubliner has been adamant about staying as a 'private' team. However, Jordan cannot compete with the ever increasing financial muscle of the likes of Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and Williams-BMW as things stand and that has prompted Jordan to contemplate the step of taking a manufacturer on board.

"There is an argument to say I might be better off selling off a chunk of the business to a manufacturer and being aligned with somebody like, McLaren have done with Mercedes sell them a chunk of the business," Jordan said at the Hungarian Grand Prix over the weekend. "I mean, I'll have to face up to reality soon. Is that the best way, because I'm not prepared to continue like this.

"It's definitely possible. The flow of income is the key, not so much technology. We can handle that but, of course, with a manufacturer you also have help and support with the different things that they do. Not selling out to one, but aligning myself to one is possible. I'm open to speaking to a major car manufacturer about a participation."

The Irishman has not yet held talks with car manufacturers, but if results continue as they have done for some time, it may be the only way for the team to pull out of its current malaise and challenge for championship points again on a consistent basis as they did in the late '90s.

Jordan had the option of agreeing such a deal at that height of success and he admits that not doing so may have been a mistake. "I had the chance to sell to Honda, but I was deadly determined to do it on my own at that stage and that was '97," he said. "I'd have felt that I'd have let a lot of people - Jordan staff, fans, myself - down.

I wanted to do it on my own and that's where we drew a lot of respect in that not one other team, ever, has started in karting and gone from Formula Ford to Formula 2000 and onto Formula 3, Formula 3000 and into Grand Prix. We pushed ourselves all the way up with those cars and won each of those championships. I wanted to do it a different way, on my own. The truth is, the reason I wanted to do it on my own is that no-one thought I could."

For a manufacturer to come on board, shareholders would need to sell up, but in view of the current difficulties, Jordan doesn't see that as being such a huge problem. One way or another, change is inevitable next season after Saturday's news that Giancarlo Fisichella would be driving for Sauber for the next two seasons.

"I'm going to do a lot of things with the team," Jordan said. "I'm gonna have a complete clean sweep. Giancarlo is leaving, I've tried to help him get into a top team and the only way he can do that is by signing a two-year deal with Sauber which will allow him to go from there to Ferrari. But, I need a fresh start too. Motivation wise, I need to start again.

"I keep going back to '97 and '98 when I started with Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella and they beat their heads off nearly to beat one another on track and I'm trying to get that again. This thing about paying big money, I can only spend the money once and I've got to spend some on the engine and the car and other things. I don't really want to be spending lots of it on a big name driver when I'd rather spend it on areas like the aero programme."