By Phil Giles
October 25 2002

Jordan have advised that the 2003 contender for the Formula One World Championship will be an all new design and not an evolution of the 2002 EJ12. Jordan have been working on the new car since the early summer when the Ford Cosworth engine deal was negotiated. The car will feature an all new look built around the RS engine.

Henri Durand, Jordan's Director of Design and Development, said, "We have created a brand new design concept for the EJ13. In addition, the Ford Cosworth engine is comprehensively different from the Honda we used this year, so there will have to be an entirely new chassis and a new gearbox before we can run it. Since June we have been planning a mid-January launch and to date everything is on schedule. When you have a radically different package, it's irrelevant and impractical to build an interim car - something that is only done when you are keeping the basic ingredients the same."

He added: "Teams generally build an interim car to test an engine which has got some risk of not performing adequately or reliably. We are totally confident that the Ford Cosworth engine we have next year will be one of the best on the grid and one of the most reliable. As a result we simply do not have any technical reason to build an interim car."

This is quite incredible news from Jordan and given the development time, things are looking great for 2003.  With Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato both provisionally on board for the drive and given the fantastic end to 2002, the future is Blue and Yellow hopefully!

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