By pitpass.com (26/10/2003)
October 26 2003

F1 team boss Eddie Jordan is confident that his team will 'stuff' Sauber in next year's Formula One World Championship. A couple of years back it was Jordan's team that threatened to challenge the big three, but in recent years Sauber has consistently been the best of the private teams. Since losing his 'works' engine deal with Honda, Jordan has been looking for a manufacturer to get involved in his team, much like BMW with WilliamsF1 and Mercedes with McLaren. What initially appeared to be a 'works' deal with Ford soon turned out to be nothing more than a 'normal' customer deal, leaving the Irishman to continue looking for a viable partner.

Earlier this year, following Max Mosley's directive that he wanted engine manufacturers to provide reasonably priced engine packages for teams in addition to their normal partner, Jordan thought he'd found salvation in the form of Mercedes, but it was not to be.

"I just hate the fact that we were led to believe the engines would be priced at £6.95million or less," he told British tabloid The People. "It's frustrating because we agreed a figure and then it changes by the time the contracts were drawn up."

Ironically Jordan was only partly through the first year of a three-year deal with Ford, before he appeared to become disenchanted with the power-plant and its cost, that's when it appeared that Mercedes might come to his team's rescue.

"As regards Ford and the deal they came to us with, it's more than the £6.95 million," says the Irishman. "They wanted to use the Jordan name and have space on the car but I'm afraid we don't just give space away for free."

In addition to all his other problems the Irishman is clearly riled that he's losing his star driver Giancarlo Fisichella to Sauber, a team he clearly regards as inferior to his own, despite its results in recent years.

"I don't consider the Sauber team any better than Jordan," he says, "although they have a little more money.

"I wanted Giancarlo in a top three or four team," he adds, "because invariably Jordan bounces back from its reverses. I would expect that next season we will be stuffing Sauber."

Time will tell Eddie, time will tell.

This article was written by pitpass.com and is used with permission.