"The company is absolutely flat out," says Bob Halliwell, Production Manager at Jordan Grand Prix. "It's a seven-day week in almost every department at the moment."

The team needs three new cars for the first race in Australia on 4 March. Race cars for Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli, plus a spare car, must be ready for shipment from England on Thursday 22 February.
So far, three chassis have been completed, the third successfully undergoing its initial shake-down last week in the hands of test driver Ricardo Zonta at Silverstone.

But the work is by no means finished. The first chassis will not be raced since this is being used for crash tests and will eventually be allocated for permanent research use on the seven-post test rig at the factory.
Chassis number 2, which was the focal point of the EJ11 launch at Jordan's headquarters on 16 January, is currently being used for test work, mainly in Spain, and will become the spare car at the races.
Chassis number 3 will join number 2 and complete its first serious running during a test this week at Valencia in Spain before being allocated to Trulli as his race car in Melbourne.
Chassis number 4 is currently in the composite shop and is due to be finished in time for a shake down a few days before the air freight deadline of 22 February. This will then become Frentzen's race car.

Even still the work will not be complete. Another two cars will be needed as quickly as possible in order to shuffle the early chassis into permanent use for the two-car test team. This might be reasonably routine if all six cars were identical but, with lessons learned from testing, changes are incorporated in the latest cars as production continues.

"Chassis number 5 is currently in the early stages of manufacture," says Bob Halliwell. "This will eventually be allocated to Jarno for his race car, which means that number 3 will move to the test team. Because we now need two test cars, it means we have to keep pushing on. Once we get a bare chassis into the work shop, it can take 15 days, in 24-hour shifts, to assemble it.

"Because of the lessons learned during testing, the latest specification can be quite a lot different from the first. We're chasing reliability and we've done 3,000 kms of running already. So, you can imagine the development which is already on-going.

"One of the biggest problems is producing enough spare parts to service three cars - in their latest guise - at the first few races. Because we insist on scrapping various components after they have completed a certain distance, we will have already got through two complete sets of parts during pre-season testing alone!
"Things begin to settle down once the season gets under way and the first six cars are complete. Then we pause for breath, take stock and see if we need to build another. We try to limit the number to six or seven for the season, cost being an obvious limiting factor."

Halliwell has been with Jordan since 1990 and watched the F1 team grow from a small band of less than 40 people to the impressive work force it is now. He all-too familiar with the pressures involved at this time of year.
"Everyone is really up against it," says Bob. "It's hard for the whole team, working seven days a week. But the job has to be done. That's what we're here for. And, to be honest, there's a special buzz which comes from being a part of it all; a real sense of achievement - particularly when you get a result on race day!
But, for us, the race against time started long ago."