By Phil Giles
July 6 2003

After a fairly optomistic start to the weekend, Jordan's French Grand Prix failed to boost the feelings of the fans and certain members of the Jordan F1 family. Giancarlo's race ended after the Ford Cosworth engine let go on lap 46 of the race, however both cars were struggling with low grip levels which impacted the EJ13's performance.

It's understood that the British Grand Prix will see a revised aero package for the EJ13 but it's not been confirmed by the team that this is going to happen.  Hopefully, the team has been working hard on these upgrades and that if or when implemented, there'll be a significant change in the handling of the car, all for the better.

Modifications aside, the performance of the team as well as the car is going to have to improve to keep Giancarlo happy.  Recently, the Italian hasn't been backwards in coming forwards about performance.  Today's result leaves Fisi very disappointed and un'appy "I’m very disappointed." (I told you!). "The car had a lot of oversteer and virtually no grip, we are struggling with the whole package. Our pace is not good enough compared to everyone else. Fighting with the Minardis for the last few positions is not my target. I need a better car and hope it will come soon - we need a big step.” 

I'm quite sure that as the season started, the team were looking to be at the very least midfielders, but with recent results and Jaguar overtaking Jordan in the constructors championship, something needs to be done soon.

Ralph at least finished the race. However in 15th place after retirements from Button, Trulli, Alonso and Fisi.  “The car started off quite good on the first set of tyres but I gradually had more and more oversteer as the circuit got more grip.  There was a slight hesitation with the engine after the first stop and I also had to come in for an extra stop so the team could investigate a vibration after my second stop. I’m looking forward to testing in Barcelona next week and then my home Grand Prix at Silverstone.”

"This Grand Prix was tough for us." said Gary Anderson. "We struggled with grip all weekend and it was the same story in the race. Giancarlo had an engine failure but our pace was not good so if he'd finished it wouldn't have been in the points anyway. We had to bring Ralph in for an extra stop because he experienced a vibration and we wanted to check everything was okay. Clearly our result is disappointing for all but we are all working hard to improve the whole package - chassis, engine and tyres."