Jordan-Fords for 2003

GilesGuthrie

GilesGuthrie

Staff Emeritus
11,038
United Kingdom
Edinburgh, UK
CMDRTheDarkLord
From itv-f1.com :
Eddie Jordan’s team could run Ford-badged Cosworth engines next year, according to reports.

The move would appear to go against Ford’s strategy of promoting Jaguar as its sporting brand in Formula 1, but according to rumours reported in this week’s Autosport magazine, the blue oval could make a return to grand prix racing.

The report states that Ford’s return as an engine supplier could mark the beginning of an exit strategy for the motor giant if Jaguar Racing continues its woeful record of underachievement.

If there’s no real improvement from the Big Cat in 2003 the Jordan-Fords could even become Jordan-Jaguars in 2004 and Jaguar Racing could be sold-off or disbanded.

This sounds like a far-fetched scenario on paper but Jaguar’s continuing lack of competitiveness is starting to worry senior Ford managers. The team’s revised and much-anticipated Jaguar R3b showed very little promise at Silverstone with Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa only managing to qualify 19th and 21st for the race.

Things got little better on Sunday with Irvine spinning out in the early stages while de la Rosa trailed home in 11th. In mitigation, Jaguar had little chance to test the car before the Silverstone weekend but its performance must still rank as a major let down.

A potential deal to supply Jordan with engines could be smoothed along by the team’s sponsor DHL, who spend millions with Ford on commercial vehicles.

This would almost certainly spell the end of the Takuma Sato’s tenure at the team. The Japanese driver has been incident prone all season and his speed has not matched up to that of the more experienced Giancarlo Fisichella.

If Honda no longer supply Jordan with engines Sato’s position will be further weakened.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised about Cosworth supplying customer engines to Jordan, but this as a part of an exit strategy for Jaguar? :eek:
 
Well, they've got to do something - a percentage play, maybe. Last time Eddie's cars had Cossies in the back they were pretty handy, as I recall.

It begs the question of what happens to the team if Ford pull the pin - could they really walk away from a grand prix franchise? Who do they sell to if they can't?
 
If anyone knows about making a reputation it's :ford:

Ford could have great potential in assisting :jaguar: and turn the team round to the opposite end of the grid.

Will Jaguar Racing die forever if Ford arive on the f1 scene?
 
Well, Ford is busy pushing its name in rallying - the cars would run as Jordan Cosworth, but if Jaguar pull out....

Would Jordan be the image Jaguar would be looking for?
 
I think it's odd that the Jaguars are still running as Jaguar Cosworths. I was always under the impression that they were going to drop the engine builder's name and become simply Jaguar, a la Ferrari and Toyota.

I would say that Jordan may hold certain attractions for Jaguar, which is a company that's desperate to appeal to younger buyers. Also, with Jordan being heavily sponsored by German companies such as DHL, it may make sense for them in the German markets.
 
Cosworth's era ended a while ago, right? I was just thinking that if Jordan acts it may be able to snatch Yoong from Minardi; Jaguar may want to wrap up developments first, so Yoong III should be their next driver.
 
They could sell it back to the Stewarts, and we could have Stewart/Fords again. Of course they would have to sell at a discount from what they picked it up at, so the Stewart's would have made a nice profit.

Alternatively, they could sell to the David Hunt group and run as Lotus/Ford's.

isn't all the continous F1 rumour mills grand?
 
Originally posted by Talentless
Cosworth's era ended a while ago, right? I was just thinking that if Jordan acts it may be able to snatch Yoong from Minardi; Jaguar may want to wrap up developments first, so Yoong III should be their next driver.
Click to expand...

Well, the racing division of Cosworth was split off and sold to Ford when Audi/VW picked up the company from Vickers (during the Rolls Royce/Bentley thing) - the automotive/engineering side is as successful as ever - probably even more so.

The racing side does the F1 motors, the Focus WRC engine, the CART engines, plus quite a few specialist applications - I think they're involved with Aprilia. They're obviously a Ford captive.

I'd suggest the Cossie in the back of Jag's probably about the best thing in the car.

Why on earth would Jaguar want to pick up Yoong - the guy can't drive his way out of a paper bag! They may pick up Webber, although it seems more likely Button will end up partnering de la Rosa next year - hopefully the car's half decent, I quite like Jenson. I wouldn't mind seeing Webber and Fisichella in a Cosworth powered Jordan next year though.

I wonder what will happen to Sato - he looks like he might be starting to settle down, it'd be a shame if he was out next year - a long time since British F3, eh?. Are both Villenueve and Panis confirmed at BAR?
 
The whole Cosworth purchase was an absolute steal by VW: they got Cosworth for an extra $100m as part of the Bentley deal, then sold the racing division to Ford for about $75m, so they got the engineering division (which was what they wanted) for $25m. An absolute steal!

I agree that Jaguar have no need for Yoong: he's only any good at bringing the wonga, which Jaguar don't need. Besides, all those KL logos would look nasty on the mean green sliding machine. However, I think vat may be being a bit harsh: he could drive his way out of a paper bag, just very, very slowly.

No, BAR have not confirmed either driver. Richards is on-record as saying he wants to keep Panis, and now Jacques has actually dragged the thing home in the points, Richards is sayign that he's actually not a bad lad! :rolleyes: His point about budgets is still valid, however, and with it looking like the Renault option is going to be snatched away again, I would think that JV's best option is to stay where he is.

Sato should go back to being BAR's test driver: he needs the miles, and he has youth on his side.
 
Well, there's some talk of him going to Jordan - I think it's pretty much given that 1) Ford engines at Jordan 2) no Sato at Jordan 3) Irvine leaving Jaguar.

Now - given that Jordan don't take a pay driver - the question is, would Jordan take Eddie, who will be expensive but is a GP winnner, or a cheap young promising thing, like, ooh, I dunno, say Mark Webber, who will be cheap, is a good tester, and will frighten the life out of Fisichella?
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Well, there's some talk of him going to Jordan - I think it's pretty much given that 1) Ford engines at Jordan 2) no Sato at Jordan 3) Irvine leaving Jaguar.

Now - given that Jordan don't take a pay driver - the question is, would Jordan take Eddie, who will be expensive but is a GP winnner, or a cheap young promising thing, like, ooh, I dunno, say Mark Webber, who will be cheap, is a good tester, and will frighten the life out of Fisichella?
Click to expand...

I think we'll see Irvine walk away from F1 at the end of this year. As for who goes to Jordan, I think Webber may be quite costly, because of his being under contract to Briatore. But then... Not sure where else he would go. He certainly seems to be pretty good. Hmmm. Need to have a think about that one!

I agree with all three of your predictions though! :thumbsup:
 
I feel sorry for Ford in a way. Putting all that money into Jaguar, and not getting the results they hoped for/want.
 
Originally posted by Mustang man
I feel sorry for Ford in a way. Putting all that money into Jaguar, and not getting the results they hoped for/want.
Click to expand...

I don't. There are so many tales of money not solving everything. If they wanted to get results from all that money, they should have left the person who had a clear track record of creating winning teams in charge, instead of a conflict-maker who was ejected from the board of his own company.

The history of Jaguar F1 is littered with management decisions being made by people who quite clearly have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

Can you imagine if Rahal had got his way? You might be seeing Webber in a Jaguar this year!
 
think it's odd that the Jaguars are still running as Jaguar Cosworths.
Click to expand...

They're not.

The team is entered as "Jaguar Racing". The display on TV is always "Team - Engine" regardless. Arrows don't have Cosworth in their team name either.
 
Well it was originally intended that they would run as Jaguar-Cosworths for the first year then be simply Jaguar, a la Ferrari and Toyota, both of whom are known simply as Ferrari and Toyota respectively.
 

Latest Posts

Back