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Jordan prepared to give Firman time to settle

Formula One Spanish Grand Prix: Jordan rookie Ralph Firman's immediate future at the Irish team looks secure, despite rumours…

Justin Hynes in Barcelona
Sat May 03 2003 - 01:00

Formula One Spanish Grand Prix: Jordan rookie Ralph Firman's immediate future at the Irish team looks secure, despite rumours suggesting that, like with under-fire Jaguar driver Antonio Pizonia, the team were pressuring their new driver.

Newspaper reports in recent days had suggested Firman could be the next to come under scrutiny following Jaguar's admission that the position of Pizzonia was under review and he could be replaced by McLaren test driver Alex Wurz following this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

However, Eddie Jordan yesterday insisted there was no additional pressure being heaped on Firman and the team was pleased with the 27-year-old's progress.

"The speculation is nonsense," Jordan insisted. "It's what I've always said; there's nothing you can compare Formula One to. These cars are incredibly difficult to drive and Ralph just needs time. And that's what we're giving him. Sometimes you put an arm around a guy's shoulder. We want to get him to relax a bit more. He's putting himself under a lot of pressure."

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The team boss added he thought Jaguar's tactics in dealing with Pizzonia were misplaced.

"Pizzonia has a loaded gun to his head. You can't do that to a driver. You need to give him a chance. He's (Firman) learning and we've got to support him. It's almost impossible to get the better of an experienced team-mate. Giancarlo's done over 100 Grands Prix."

Jordan's rookie yesterday went a long way to proving his worth to the team in pre-qualifying, coming within three tenths of the time set by team-mate Fisichella, despite suffering from problematic under-steer during his single lap. The Italian finished the day 15th, with Firman in 18th, a poor return after the pair were well placed in the morning's practice with Firman 12th and Fisichella 16th.

"Although I'm a bit disappointed overall, I felt it was a reasonable lap, and it's encouraging I'm not too far away from Giancarlo's time."

Firman's performance was a marked improvement on his recent qualifying performances, which have been characterised by a tendency to overdrive and make mistakes. Yesterday, on a track Firman is more familiar with than most having completed 283 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya in winter testing, the rookie showed he can match his team-mate's pace.

Under-fire Pizzonia slumped to a seven-tenths deficit to highly regarded team-mate Mark Webber but Firman stuck close to Fisichella to bolster his chances at Jordan, where his race times, consistently close to or, on occasion, quicker than Fisichella's, have already drawn appreciative noises from the team.

"Ralph did a remarkable job today," said Jordan. "He overdrove the car a little bit and made a mistake at T2 when he went wide but he still pulled it together."

It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Michael Schumacher who set the pace. The world champion took Ferrari's new F2003-GA challenger into battle for the first time yesterday and immediately demonstrated the car's potential, racing to a seven-tenths lead over the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen.

By the end of the session the gap to the champion had been closed to just 19 hundredths of a second by Renault's Jarno Trulli. Schumacher said it was encouraging to be on provisional pole.

"I feel very comfortable in the car and after a good start, it means we can be confident for the rest of the weekend," he said. "It's a nice feeling to be racing the new car and this provisional pole means that so far the car has lived up to our expectations."

The surprise of the day was the relative lack of pace of the McLarens with Raikkonen eighth and David Coulthard ninth, behind the Jaguar of Webber in seventh and the Toyota of Olivier Panis, sixth fastest yesterday.

The other major shock was the speed of the Toyotas. The Japanese outfit has run in the past in testing at Barcelona but with Panis sixth yesterday and rookie team-mate Cristiano De Matta a startling fourth, behind Rubens Barrichello and ahead of Jenson Button's BAR, the fledgling team looks set for a promising weekend.

Meanwhile, Jordan sources also yesterday scotched rumours that the team was on the cusp of a sponsorship deal with Ryanair.

OFFICIAL PRACTICE TIMES: 1. M Schumacher (GER) Ferrari 1 min 17.130 sec, 2. J Trulli (ITA) Renault 1:17.149, 3. R Barrichello (BRA) Ferrari 1:17.218, 4. C Da Matta (BRA) Toyota 1:17.443, 5. J Button (Brit) BAR 1:17.613, 6. O Panis (FRA) Toyota 1:17.746, 7. M Webber (AUS) Jaguar 1:17.793, 8. K Raikkonen (FIN) McLaren 1:17.862, 9. D Coulthard (GBR) McLaren 1:18.060, 10. F Alonso (SPA) Renault 1:18.100, 11. R Schumacher (GER) Williams 1:18.409, 12. J Villeneuve (CAN) BAR 1:18.461, 13. A Pizzonia (BRA) Jaguar 1:18.528, 14. JP Montoya (COL) Williams 1:18.607, 15. G Fisichella (ITA) Jordan 1:18.879, 16. H-H Frentzen (GER) Sauber 1:18.909, 17. N Heidfeld (GER) Sauber 1:19.050, 18. R Firman (GBR) Jordan 1:19.195, 19. J Verstappen (NED) Minardi 1:20.822, 20. J Wilson (GBR) Minardi 1:21.100.