Fisichella encouraged by EJ13

Despite the first test of the Jordan EJ13 being a bit of a challenge, Giancarlo Fisichella is encouraged by the performance of the new car. There were gremlins aplenty for Jordan in its testing session at Barcelona last week, including a rear wing failure, but Fisichella managed to get a decent last day. The Italian described the 2003 challenger as more stable than last year's chassis and was pleased with the power of the Cosworth engine.

"After several installation laps I managed to do some proper running," he said, according to Autosport. "It was very good because, checking the data, we were able to set 1m19.0s lap times immediately without pushing or changing set-ups. It was a lot of fun and very encouraging. The car is much more stable than last year's in all areas. It is still very understeery at the moment but we can control that when we start working on set-ups. I'm especially pleased with the engine, it has good power and is very reliable."

Jordan was late starting its winter test programme due to waiting for the supply of Cosworth engines and Fisichella was eager to get behind the wheel again: "It has been a very tough winter," he said. "Three months of not driving is very difficult. Of course it is nice to be with my family but after three months rest I'm ready to work hard. I want to drive so much, which is good because at the moment I am the only driver!"

Cost-cutting has been the topic of conversation in F1 for some time now and Jordan has made no secret of the fact that it's financially challenged this year. The team is still in discussions to sign up a second driver to partner Fisichella; ex-Sauber driver Felipe Massa is currently the hot favourite, along with Britain's Ralph Firman.

Fisichella is aware of the financial problems but believes Jordan has been spending efficiently and there is plenty of scope to improve: "This car is a good one," he stated. "I know we don't have much money, but I think what we have has been spent on the correct things. We still have a tough season ahead of us but at least we have a nice package we can develop."

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