German GP: Jordan preview

The German Grand Prix is home race for Jordan Ford drivers Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock and in addition to Heidfeld's best F1 finish at this circuit - a points-scoring 6th place, the team's former German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen was on the podium in Hockenheim with 3rd place in 1999. Eddie Jordan is also proud to have introduced both Schumacher brothers to Formula One, providing their first ever F1 drives: Spa '91 for Michael and Melbourne '97 for Ralf.

Jordan has been finalising preparations for the 2004 German Grand Prix with a last test session before F1's summer testing ban. The team remained at its home track of Silverstone after the British Grand Prix and tested for three days (13 to 15 July) with Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano sharing the driving and adding over 1000km to the EJ14's test mileage.

Nick Heidfeld:

"I am looking forward to Hockenheim as it is one of my home races, following Silverstone which was almost like a home Grand Prix. The atmosphere at Hockenheim is probably the best in the world especially for the spectators, being in the stadium section. You feel that as a driver too and I hope there will be a lot of supporters for the German drivers, including me. At Silverstone we had a positive test and tried something new on the mechanical side which found us a good margin of lap time so hopefully that will help us in Hockenheim."

Giorgio Pantano:

"I won the German Formula 3 title at Hockenheim in my first year in the series - I like the circuit. We haven't been able to change the car a lot before we go there, although we have done a bit of testing at Silverstone. Hockenheim is quite fun to drive because it's a high speed, high power track and since I enjoyed the flat-out sections of Indianapolis in the F1 car, I'm looking forward to it. It's about technicality from the driver, finding the brake balance and really being on the limit"

James Robinson, Head of race and test engineering:

Hockenheim is not the track it once was -- gone are the beautiful long straights and a tighter track replaces them, requiring a higher level of downforce than the old long circuit. In some respects it's removed some of the interest of the track, as it was one of the very different circuits in the calendar but now it tends to blend into the others. It can be a very hot race and it would be a tough situation for the tyres and the drivers if we see temperatures like last year again. We have the engine upgrade that we had in Silverstone and possibly a couple of things we tried at the test following the Grand Prix."

46664 is new Message from Bahrain

Jordan's Message from Bahrain at this Grand Prix will be the emblem of the charity 46664. This was Nelson Mandela's prison number during his 18 years of incarceration in Robben Island prison and upon his release and subsequent election as the President of South Africa, Mandela gave the number to rock-star Dave Stewart of Eurythmics to initiate a series of music recordings and concerts for charitable fundraising for the fight of AIDS in South Africa.

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