He has had to face tough questions about the pressure on the team to perform now that Jordan will be associated with a major manufacturer which has won several championships with Williams and McLaren.
"We are under no illusions," said Jordan. "Honda expect us to perform - and we will. We have to! The link with a major manufacturer is the final step, an essential one if we are to take the fight to McLaren and Ferrari. Yes, the pressure is on but, equally, Jordan is now a team to be reckoned with. There is no doubt, for instance, that this will be a big help when negotiating driver contracts - I'm very keen to keep Heinz-Harald and Jarno - and preparing the technical department for the new challenge. This is a really exciting time for Jordan Grand Prix. Everything is in place."

When he says everything is in place, hopefully he is including the driver lineup!
Jarno is contracted to drive next year, but Eddie still has to confirm that Heinz Harald will sign an extension to his contract which runs out at the end of this year.
Never one to miss an opportunity, it appears the team owner is playing a few mind games with his German driver by suggesting that he is talking to Jacques Villeneuve regarding a drive for next year.
Jordan said yesterday, "I would like to keep Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the team but I have a responsibility to look at all the best driver options open to me and I will talk to Villeneuve.
"I have heard that one of the major stumbling blocks surrounding Villeneuve is he doesn't like attending events for sponsors and that's an important part for our drivers.
"But we do try and make our sponsors' events enjoyable. They are not boring so maybe he would join in the fun rather than sit in his motor home."

It is highly unlikely that Villeneuve would move to Jordan, or that Jordan could match the suggested $20million annual wage bill. Jordan's commercial director Ian Phillips confirmed as much, "We want to continue with the two drivers we have already got and besides, anyone who knows how this team generates its finance would know that the idea of Villeneuve coming here is a non-starter."

A much more likely scenario is that the story is designed to force Heinz-Harald to make up his mind sooner rather than later !

The team knows that the link with a major manufacturer is vitally important in the battle to get on terms with the top teams in Formula One. Importantly Honda will supply equal specification engines to both Jordan and BAR next season. The contract is 'long term' but information is currently available as to how long.

"This is a massive breakthrough for Benson & Hedges Jordan," said Eddie Jordan. "To have the support and commitment of Honda gives renewed credibility to our ambitions to win the World Championship. I believe that Jordan-Honda now represents the most exciting technical package for the years ahead.
"This is without doubt the biggest ever deal for Jordan Grand Prix and a tribute to the hard work put in by everyone at the factory over the years.
"We know we've got to work harder still to fulfil the potential. There can be no excuses though, everything is in place to win championships.
"I would like to thank Mr Hirotoshi Honda and Mugen for their great support during the past three years and their encouragement in creating this platform for the future.

Aside from the excellent engine that Jordan will be getting, they will also be freeing up an estimated $30million, the annual cost of buying the Mugen-Honda powerplant. This money will be very much welcomed by the aerodynamics team as the wind tunnel cost a fortune to run, and Mike Gascoyne has said in the past that time spent in the tunnel translates directly to time saved on the track.

Honda has an impressive pedigree in F1. This is the Japanese company's third era of participation in Grand Prix racing, having run their own team in the mid-Sixties and then returned in 1983, winning six consecutive Constructors' Championships and five drivers' titles as engine supplier to Williams and McLaren before withdrawing at the end of 1992. Honda began this latest phase in 2000 with BAR but all has not been well with internal strife and a difficult to drive chassis leading to poor performances.

Takeo Fukui, Senior Managing and Representative Director in charge of Motor Sport Activities, Honda Motor Co Ltd, commented. "Along with our joint development of chassis technology with BAR, the supply of works engines to Jordan represents a new challenge in Honda's third period of participation in F1. Through these efforts we will continue to do our utmost to meet the expectations of motor sport fans. In addition we will continue our challenge in the American CART series and Motorcycle Championship races at the same level of commitment as the present."

It is likely that this is the piece of the jigsaw that will enable Eddie to sign Heinz-Harald for another season or two. It has been suugested that the German is about to put pen to paper and was probably just awaiting this announcement.

According to Autosport, he has agreed terms to stay with the Irish team and drive alongside Jarno for the 2001 season.

Currently both Eddie Jordan and Heinz have refused to admit that the deal is done, with Eddie commenting "Nothing is agreed, we are close as people. I'd like to sign him and I see no reason why it shouldn't happen, but there is no urgency. He'd like to stay and I'd like to keep him"

Frentzen would only comment that Jordan was trying to put together a package for the future, but that at the moment it wasn't finalised.

In recent weeks the rumours surrounding Frentzen have been frenetic. Both Jaguar and Sauber have been chasing him hard with it being suggested that Jaguar have offered him $9million a year and Sauber about $8million. There are differing stories circulating about how much he earns at Jordan but it is thought to be in the region of $6million so Eddie has obviously had to increase his offer for next year.
Autosport suggest that he has matched Sauber's offer and apparently Eddie commented to Peter Sauber at Canada that he had "cost me $2million!"

With no seats available at Ferrari or McLaren, and Montoya supposedly on his way for the second Williams seat, Heinz-Harald would have had to take a gamble if he was to move. Jaguar have a much bigger budget than Jordan, but so far they have done nothing with it and there has been no sign of them making a rapid improvement in performance.
Heinz-Harald started his Formula One career at Sauber and hold a soft spot for the Swiss team, but again there is no sign of them winning races and competing for a championship in the next few years.

Undoubtedly a major factor in Heinz-Harald deciding to stay has been that he has received some confirmation regarding Honda and the engine supply for next year. The fact that Heinz-Harald would now appear to be happy gives big credence to the idea that an engine deal has already been done.

"Today (Friday 23rd), on my third day of testing in Magny-Cours, I did quite a lot of laps. More than 100 altogether. I was testing a new engine development step which we will use for the race in Austria. As usual I am not allowed to say any single word about the engine, so I will not say that the new Mugen Honda V10 is more powerful.

"But mainly we concentrated on set up, doing things we usually do on a Friday free practice before the race. We were happy with our results and I think the top teams will be very close together."

As Heinz mentioned, the engine will not get it's runout before the Austrian Grand Prix which takes place on July 16th, just after this weekend's French race.

Gascoyne will join a host of motor sport celebrities and a wide variety of racing machinery from the past and the present as drivers attempt to smash the record set last year by Nick Heidfeld in the F1 McLaren.

"I don't think there is any danger of me setting a new record!" says Gascoyne. "I only sat in the car for the first time when I had a seat fitting on Wednesday. The first chance I will get to drive it will be when I set off for just two practice runs on Saturday. Then it will be the run against the clock on Sunday. I have never been to Goodwood before but I hear there isn't much room for error - so I'll try not to get too carried away."

Gascoyne has experience of driving F1 cars thanks to racing a Tyrrell (also designed my himself) in the British Open Single Seater (BOSS) series. He finished third at Brands Hatch in one of his three outings with the car which had been Tyrrell's F1 challenger in 1994.
"F1 technology has moved on a bit since 1994," says Gascoyne. "The Tyrrell had a semi-automatic gearbox but, unlike the latest cars, there was a foot clutch. The engine in the car I raced had been detuned and only revved to 13,000 rpm.
"The Jordan will rev to 17,000 rpm. It is in full race spec, exactly as it finished the end of last season! I may be familiar with every inch of the car from a technical point of view, but knowing it and driving it are too entirely different things - especially on a narrow road in a country estate! But I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard so much about the Goodwood weekend; it should be a fantastic experience."

Famous names such as Sir Stirling Moss, Johnny Herbert, Jenson Button, Damon Hill, Barry Sheene and John Watson will be taking part. Goodwood House is in West Sussex, near Chichester, about 60 miles south west of London. The action starts at 9.00 am on both days, with Sunday being ticket only. (Telephone 0870 4420822 or visit www.goodwood.co.uk if you are local enough to be interested).

Eddie Jordan admitted on Friday that his team would need a better engine to compete at the top-level next season.

The team have struggled with their Mugen-supplied engine this season and are currently fifth in the constructors' championship with nine points from seven races.
But Jordan said that his team were looking for a new engine supplier for next year so the Silverstone-based outfit could challenge the likes of McLaren and Ferrari.

"The situation on engines is quite clear," said the Irishman. "If you're to have a realistic chance of winning a world title, it is now quite obvious that you need a major car manufacturer as your partner."
"We are talking to a number of manufacturers and our partners Mugen are aware of that."

He refused to comment on any specific engine suppliers but admitted it was likely that his team would end their association with Mugen. "We are of course talking to a number of manufacturers" he continued. "We have been very open about that and Mugen is aware of that. We have had a lot of success with Mugen: we won races with their engine last year and the year before, and it is Mugen who has got us to where we are.
"They are superb people. But with new names coming in, the indications are that the way forward is with a major manufacturer.

"Mugen, Hirotoshi Honda (Managing Director of Mugen) and myself have discussed this matter. Last year we were quick but not quick enough in real terms, so it could have been a distorted picture.
"We've tried to make everything lighter and up the game but we've suffered with electronic problems and we need to challenge the two teams in front."

Apart from the obivous Honda, it will be very interesting to see who else Eddie has been talking to. Audi are known to be interested in making a move into F1 to combat the potential success of BMW, although that would mean a few barren years for Jordan while an engine is developed from scratch.
For much the same reasons, Nissan have also been mentioned to be able to compete against Honda and Toyota, although their recent sales figures have meant that they probably cannot afford it currently.

Mike Gascoyne, Jordan’s current technical director, is joining Benetton/Renault half way through the 2001 season, leaving a major gap in the team’s make up.

Jenkins, who will be 53 next month, first showed his skills back in 1979 when he helped to design the McLaren MP4 with John Barnard. He then became race engineer to John Watson and Alain Prost, winning the 1984 championship.
He moved to the Penske CART team in 1985 and 1986 during which time they won the Indy 500 and championship. Returning to F1 he developed the Onyx F1 project, gaining a podium at Estoril, then acted as technical director for 6 years at Footwork, before switching to Stewart GP on their entry to Formula One in 97.
Jenkins had a large say in the 1999 Stewart, which is said to be one of the best designs on the grid. In June 1999 he moved to the Prost team, again as technical director.

There have been comments from within the Prost team, however that Jenkins is not an easy man to work with and the aerodynamics of the 2000 Prost are not at all good. Things got to be so bad that recently Prost driver, Jean Alesi, has stated that even he could do a better job when it came to the cars aerodynamics. "Give me a few bits of wool to stick on the car, a good gust of Mistral wind and I could come up with a better aerodynamic package," he said! If appointed, it would be interesting to see how Jenkins would fit into the Jordan way of doing things.

Jenkins has, however, also been mentioned in connection with a similar role at Toyota's fledgling F1 works team and we know to our cost with Gascoyne that the car manufacturers have much more money for wages than Eddie.

A Jordan spokesperson has denied that talks were taking place and that there was any rush within the team to fill Gascoyne's place. "Nobody has been appointed yet to fill the vacancy," they said, "obviously we will be looking for a replacement, but there has been nothing concrete decided yet."

He has some PR work to do in the meantime though, a media day has been scheduled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, host to the first US GP since 1991 on the 24th of September.
Heinz commented, “But before I will be braking in Montreal, I am first of all looking forward to Indianapolis. On Tuesday (13th), I will take up an invitation from the organisers to attend a press day for the US media. In order to avoid a jet-lag, I will head for the USA already on Saturday to get used to everything.”

He will then make the short journey to Montreal on Wednesday.

It is rumoured that they have offered the German a three-year, US$15million deal, and given him fresh guarantees about the team's future technical program.

In Monaco Frentzen tried to play down any speculation saying, "It's a bit too soon to be thinking about next year. I don't even know for sure what's happening with Jordan, and I want to hear from Eddie what his program is for 2001 before I make my mind up.

"I'm definitively going to be racing next year and I want to be with a competitive team like Jordan; I don't want to go back to the middle of the grid. If Jordan offers me an ambitious program I'll be more than willing to stay, unless a much better offer comes through."

A vital factor in whether Jordan can keep Frentzen is the engine situation as laid out below. Jordan will have to make all his plans for 2001 known to Heinz-Harald to have any hope of keeping him.

Jaguar were considering Jenson Button as a partner for Irvine following Frentzen's first refusal, but having checked the youngster's contractual situation they decided to play it safe, and made another attempt to lure the German away from Jordan.

Eddie Jordan has started making enquires about other drivers' contracts and as Jarno Trulli has another year to run on his contract, it can only be because he is not too confident of keeping the man from Monchengladbach. As published in the story below, there is strong rumours of Button signing for Jordan as a replacement.

Partnering Frentzen with Irvine would certainly make life interesting for Jaguar, as the two have a well documented dislike for each other, and have clashed many a time on the track, most recently last weekend at Monaco - Frentzen said Irvine had given him ‘the fright of my life’ when slowing down to 50kph in the tunnel during the final laps of qualifying.

It now appears, however, that the situation between Honda, Mugen-Honda, Jordan and BAR might not be that simple after all – when is it ever in Formula One !
Despite putting more and more effort into the BAR works project and therefore less into the Jordan customer project things are not going according to plan and Honda have made it clear that they are not at all happy with the progress being made by BAR to the point where they are putting technical resource back on the Mugen engine – there is a major design change due for the Austrian Grand Prix.

In testing, qualifying and practise the team with the heavier, less powerful engine is regularly beating the team with the multi million dollar works engine. Even taking into account Jordan’s recent reliability problems, they are still ahead in the championship points race.

Monaco has clarified several issues to the point where it is difficult for Honda to ignore them any more.
Firstly, to get the EJ10 on to the 1st and 2nd rows of the grid they must have an excellent chassis, the signs are it is as good as Ferrari and better than McLaren.
Secondly, if they had an equivalently powerful engine there is no reason why they could not be doing it on the faster circuits as well.
Thirdly, with BAR qualifying on the 8th and 10th rows, they must have a pretty terrible chassis, with the package only held together by a good engine and a good driver.
Fourthly, the signs are that Villeneuve might well be off at the end of this season and the current package will not attract a top named driver.

Honda are known to have performance clauses in their ‘exclusive’ contract with BAR which they can now exercise if required. So, while Honda have confirmed they will not supply their works engine to Jordan next year, an other alternative has emerged.
This week it is rumoured that Honda have written a contract to supply their works engine not to Jordan, but to Mugen-Honda.
This isn’t as unlikely as it sounds, it actually fits in with the recent comments by Takefumi Hosaka, Managing Director of research and development at Honda, who said when he was confirming that Honda wouldn’t supply Jordan direct, "This year we are supplying an engine through Mugen to Jordan and we also have a close relationship with BAR. We are going to maintain the current situation next year as well. Jordan will use the engine supplied to Mugen by us," he said. "We are not going to work directly with Jordan and they will use the Mugen engine."
He doesn’t state what engine they will supply to Mugen, only that Jordan will use what is supplied.

It has been further suggested that the first half of 2001 could in effect turn into a shoot out between the two teams. The one who produces the results will get the greater support.

No contract is signed yet, but if these rumours (and there are a lot of them) are close, it will be great news for the Irish team and would be just what Eddie needs in his upcoming fight to keep Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the Jordan team.

Frank Williams is currently trying to get the recent Indy 500 winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, to join next year so he has asked 24-year-old Montoya's boss Chip Ganassi if his former test driver can be released from his three-year contract a year early. There is expected to be a meeting between Williams, Ganassi and Montoya’s management later this week to sort out who drives where in 2001 and Ganassi will be looking for about $5million to let his star go.

Button, who is on a long-term rolling contract with Williams, has recently been linked with a loan deal at Jaguar Racing as replacement for Johnny Herbert. But sources close to Heinz-Harald Frentzen indicate that the German is set to switch to partner Eddie Irvine in 2001 (they drove together in their F3000 days, ironically enough for Jordan). There has been rumours for several months that Heinz-Harald has signed a letter of intent to drive for Jaguar, and while the German driver has denied this, he has admitted that conversations have taken place.

Obviously the deal would be very good for 20 year old Button. It would enable him to gain a huge amount of experience in a ‘driver friendly’ environment before moving back to a supposedly competitive team.
It is not so easy to see what would be in it for Jordan though. Eddie’s team has been the F1 school for many current drivers, including Schumacher brothers Michael and Ralf, Giancarlo Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello and he is known to be fed up with them leaving when they have the necessary level of experience to join a team with a bigger budget. He stated at the start of this year that he no longer was going to be a training school for new talent, so would have to be sure that Button would produce the results quickly.

A spokesman for the Irish team has denied that there have been any conversations, but it is very possible they might have no say in it. "There is no truth in the rumour. There have not been any talks at all. Eddie is not looking to go in that direction, we are happy with our driver line up."
Heinz will be looking for a team that will allow him to challenge for the championship and with his contract expiring the end of this year, unless Eddie can pull a works engine out of the bag, it is difficult to see how his team can stay as competitive as they are, never mind closing the gap on the big 2 in front.

Two cars, one from 1991 and one from 1999 will attend the Belfast City Open & Direct Millennium Motorsport Festival at Stormont on the 28th August, with the Northern Irish former Grand Prix star John Watson driving a Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 and the team’s first ever F1 car, the green Jordan Ford 191.

It will be the first time that a contemporary Formula 1 team has run an F1 car in Northern Ireland since the 1950s and the presence of last years double winning car is sure to be the highlight of the festival. Watson started 152 Grand Prix, winning 5 and coming equal second in the 1982 championship. Coincidentally he was also Jordan's first ever test driver, undertaking the initial shakedown tests of the J191 in the autumn of 1990.

"From what we have seen the Belfast City Open & Direct Millennium Motorsport Festival promises to be the most spectacular event in the history of Motorsport in Northern Ireland," said Eddie Jordan. "We have seen the entry list and I think the organisers have done a truly remarkable job. I am delighted that we will be able to send two of our most important cars and that John Watson will be there to drive them. The sight of our F1 cars driving along that famous avenue up to Stormont will be quite extra ordinary."

Jordan will be sending a number of staff, plus personnel from Mugen-Honda direct to Festival from the Belgian Grand Prix on August the 27th. Further details of the teams participation in the event will be made available nearer the time.

"The Monaco race literally takes place in front of my flat so it is something very special for me. But also in terms of driving skills, it is a particular challenge. Nowhere else, skills like car control, natural movement and the ability to concentrate are of similar importance as in the principality.

In Monaco, everybody is very ambitious. This track is one single, huge corner - you can't relax as there are simply no straights. The bumps are simply everywhere. They urge you to keep the car under control. But because Monaco is extremely demanding, a good result there is very satisfying, either. I am highly motivated and I hope for the Jordan team that our season finally starts to gather momentum right here.

Following a successful test at Valencia during the week, Mugen-Honda have a fairly major engine upgrade available to the team this weekend and although it is not at all a power circuit, every little bit of help will be welcome. The team will be looking towards a positive result.

Frentzen drove during the morning on Wednesday, recording a 1:17.89s best before Trulli took over in the afternoon, setting a best of 1: 17.70.

Wednesday 24th
Verstappen	Arrows	1:15.93	50 laps
Fisichella	Benetton	1:16.90	59 laps
Herbert	Jaguar	1:17.67	69 laps
Trulli	Jordan	1.17.70	27 laps
Pizzioni	Benetton	1:17.85	39 laps
Frentzen	Jordan	1.17.89	34 laps
Diniz	Sauber	1:17.94	103 laps
Pantano	Benetton	1:18.03	40 laps

The Italian driver's Jordan sustained no significant damage when hit by Fisichella's Benetton and Jarno was able to continue running. The team also did an engine change between the two drivers' sessions.

Trulli completed the test on Thursday when he completed 91 laps for a best time of 1: 16.72, concentrating on set up work for the Monaco race, brake duct work as well as practicing some starts.
The team were generally very happy with the test as no major problems were encountered.

Thursday 25th
Salo	Sauber	1:16.370	110 laps
Trulli	Jordan	1.16.720	91 laps
Pizzoni	Benetton	1:16.970	84 laps
de la Rosa	Arrows	1:17.530/font>	69 laps
Irvine	Jaguar	1:17.750/font>	78 laps

Heinz-Harald has changed his mind about the Valencia circuit. Upon arriving at the circuit, he was quoted as saying that it is a "Mickey-mouse circuit", but said after finishing the session that he was a bit unfair.
"After a few laps in my road car I considered the track to be just another Mickey-Mouse-Circuit. But after one and a half days with the Jordan I had to change my mind: Driving on the circuit is real fun. Especially the corner after the start and finish straight is very fast. The track is a great testing possibility for sure. Not only for Monaco but also for the tricky Hungaroring".

The next planned testing session for the team will be on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June in Monza.

"This year we are supplying an engine through Mugen to Jordan and we also have a close relationship with BAR. We are going to maintain the current situation next year as well. Jordan will use the engine supplied to Mugen by us," he said. "We are not going to work directly with Jordan and they will use the Mugen engine."

The news will come as a blow to Jordan. Outwardly, the team has always maintained it is pleased to maintain its relationship with Hirotoshi Honda's Mugen organisation but the current engine incarnation, although powerful, is some 20 kgs heavier than its Honda rival and many have suggested that it is only the aerodynamic prowess of designer Mike Gascoyne that has kept the team in the chase to challenge McLaren and Ferrari.

Gascoyne, however, is to depart the team for Benetton midway through the 2001 season and the prospect of matching next year's Mugen with a chassis designed by a departing designer will not appeal to Eddie. He clearly has some manouvering to do between now and then.

Rumours suggested that because he is leaving half way through a season he would not be allowed to work on next season's car as it would give him intricate and up-to-date knowledge of the 2001contender, information which he could then take to Benetton/Renault.
Eddie feels that he has total trust in Mike’s ability and honour "If it's his [Gascoyne's] car next season, which it will be, he will be keen to make sure it is a good one," assured Eddie Jordan. "We're more than happy for him to work until the end of his contract."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has commented on what he thinks this will mean for the team as a whole. The German is hoping that it wont make any difference, certainly to the current season.
"Everybody kept asking me in Spain if Mike Gascoyne's departure from the team will make a difference. I hope not," he remarked. "There are a great group of engineers and designers at Jordan and I think they can fill any gaps that Mike might leave. Anyway, he is still with the team until at least the end of the season and he still has plenty of time to come up with some good ideas to put us back in the fight for bronze - even if the gold is still very much an all McLaren-Ferrari affair at present."

We are working on a fix - going back to the system which proved so reliable last year - but it means a major re-work of the gearbox and we simply did not have enough time to do it for Silverstone.
Up until that point, everything had been going pretty well for me. I like those slippery and unpredictable conditions that only Silverstone seems to bring and this weekend's race was no exception. After practising my opposite lock techniques on all the mud on the way into the track, there was plenty of opportunity during practice as the track conditions ranged from dry to flooded and everything else in between.
I got a quick run on the few minutes of dry track which we had on Friday morning which ensured B&H stayed at the top of the timing sheet for the rest of the day. Then for qualifying, I went out just at the right moment and had a traffic-free lap to set what was to eventually be the second fastest time of the session and a front row spot.
In those kind of conditions, it's really like tossing up a coin as to the time you set. I was lucky and it fell my way. I got in a good lap, but with the pole changing hands 16 times during the hour, I really didn't know where it was going to leave me on the grid.
In the closing seconds, Barrichello just beat me by three- thousandth's of a second, but I was happy enough to be starting on the front row, ahead of the McLarens and Michael Schumacher, particularly if it was going to be a wet race.

I would have liked similar conditions to have a realistic chance of winning the race, but the weather took a turn for the better on Saturday. There as fog to start which delayed the warm-up, but the sun soon broke through and it was a dry track for the race.

The traffic jams were so bad on Sunday that I took the team scooter to come to the track with on Sunday. However, I forgot to take any gloves, and it took me an hour to thaw out when I got there!

In a bid to stay up front in the opening laps I had gone for a two stop race.
I got a good start, but sadly not good enough to get ahead of Barrichello who led the field until my stop. I was able to stay with him, and would probably have been a bit quicker on a clear track, but considering the fuel advantage I had , it was another clear indication that our B&H Jordan is still lacking around a second in speed against the Ferraris or McLarens. Even Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW was a few tenths faster than my best race lap.
Most of that is coming from the chassis, so it's clear that we still have a lot of work to do this year if we are going to start challenging the leaders in a straight fight. However, as the old saying goes, "to finish first, first you have to finish," and right now, fixing our gearbox problems is our number one priority.

One point in the last two races isn't going to keep our third place in the Constructors' Championship standings which has already gone to Williams-BMW after this race.

Michael, a 28-year-old engineer from Sydney, is rumoured to have been promoted to design the Jordan team's car for next year after Gascoyne has decided to make the switch to the Benetton/Renault team. According to reports he will head up a 15 strong contingent of designers and aerodynamicists and will take over duties from Gascoyne from July 2001 on.

Michael joined Lotus in 1994 having been spotted in Sydney where he was working in the Australian Formula Ford open wheeler series, he switched to Jordan when Lotus folded at the end of the year.
For the past three years he has been race engineer to firstly Ralf Schumacher and now Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Sam is the person widely credited with the inspired strategy that won Frentzen last year's rain drenched French Grand Prix.

If he does take the position, he will become the second Australian chief designer in the Formula One world, Malcolm Oastler of BAR being the other, he will also be the youngest.