FORMULA 1/Monaco Grand Prix Preview: On Thursday night in Monaco's upmarket Stars and Bars night-club, Eddie Jordan hammered away at the drums with a fervour that has so far this season been conspicuously absent from the efforts of his Formula One team.

Surrounded by own band, V-10, the Jordan boss clattered faithfully through a version of the old Elvis Costello song Pump it Up, and with just two points to the team's name after six races that's just what his team needs to do this weekend at Formula One's most glamorous and high-profile event.

Out in the harbour, reclining on multi-million pound floating palaces sailed in to the principality's harbour for the express purpose of cossetting movers and shakers, lie the corporate sharks capable of funding a Formula One team through times which are becoming more and more straightened. For Jordan, very much on the receiving end of those hard times, Monaco is the place where a good show needs to be delivered - and not just on the stages of the tax haven's night-clubs.

So far, though, Jordan's Monaco party has been a lively affair. Thursday's free practice sessions saw lead pilot Giancarlo Fisichella set the fourth fastest time, a performance that had the Italian purring that he was confident of a top-ten spot in today's qualifying session.

That grid spot is all important at Monaco. The twisting, switchback streets of Monte Carlo refuse to allow bold overtaking manoeuvres.

Only kerb-crawling moves through the Loew's hairpin as rivals err are admitted and barring accident or mechanical failure the front of Sunday's grid always has a good chance of finishing in that order in Monte Carlo.

In recent months, though, it has been accidents and technical problems that have prevented Jordan from making the championship moves they so desperately need. Recurrent hydraulic problems, Takuma Sato's massive shunt in Austria, even the team's two drivers taking each other out, all have contributed to the Irish team's poor first half of the season.

Progress, however, has been made. This weekend the team will introduce new components designed to improve reliability, parts the engineers believe will make a significant difference to the season.

The drivers will also again use the revised front wing arrangement debuted in Austria, a configuration given hearty approval by both Fisichella and Sato.

Whereas in 1998 when Monaco was the lowest point in the team's already chequered history, this year's road race is being seen as a launch pad to better days.

Standing in the way though are teams whose 2002 days have been, if not sunny, then at least marginally brighter. Even forgetting championship contenders Ferrari and Williams, Jordan will have to contend for grid supremacy with McLaren and Renault.

After a hideous weekend in Austria, Jordan alumnus Jarno Trulli hit a purple patch on Thursday, setting the fastest free practice time. With Trulli being dogged by so much racing bad luck, it is also easy to forget that the Italian was, in his Jordan days, a front row qualifier in Monaco.

David Coulthard, too, was in ebullient form in the practice sessions. The Scot, a winner here in 2000, was also took pole here last year, though on that occasion a launch control failure cost him any chance of another Monaco win.

But, while those are the teams Jordan will have to battle with to secure grid spots on the fringes of the top ten, the front rows are again likely to be all about Ferrari and Williams.

Both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were sanguine about their apparently lowly performances on Thursday, saying they had both been concentrating on race set-up, while all around them, others were fine-tuning qualifying specification.

Williams were not concerned either about their poor Thursday showing. A shrug from Juan Pablo Montoya and a knowing grin said it all. Practice is only practice, when showtime comes around he and his team will turn it on.

For Eddie Jordan, today is also the time to turn it on. The house lights may have gone down around his band but a questioning spotlight still shines bright on his team.

• Takuma Sato is a fixture at the Jordan team, at least until the end of next season, said Eddie Jordan yesterday.The team boss was moved to comment in Monaco yesterday on his rookie driver's status at the team as rumours persist that his tenure in Formula One may not extend beyond his debut season.

Sato has struggled to get on the pace of his vastly experienced and highly regarded team mate Giancarlo Fisichella and has had a number of high profile spins and crashes. He was blameless for his most recent F1 accident, in Austria two weeks ago, but still the questions are being asked.

"The contract is for five years, with options included, naturally, but the first two are a solid block," said Jordan. "I think that's really answered the question. I think there is, to the best of my knowledge, no break in the first two years (of his contract) at all."

The comments will reassure Sato who has looked more comfortable in his job in recent weeks. The unforgiving nature of the armco-lined Monaco circuit will be a true test of his progress.