Jordan lose battle to keep Fisichella

Benetton yesterday won their legal battle with Jordan to secure the services of Giancarlo Fisichella, one of the brightest talents in Formula One. The decision could open the way for Damon Hill to join Jordan, to drive alongside Ralf Schumacher, although the world champion is also negotiating with Prost and Arrows, his current team.

After a two-day hearing in the London High Court, Justice Jacob found in favour of Benetton who had originally loaned Fisichella to Jordan for 1997.

He ordered that Jordan should write to the FIA's contract recognition board advising it that Fisichella would be driving for Benetton next season.

However, the judge ordered a three-day stay on the order to give Jordan the chance to appeal. Ian Phillips, the team's commercial manager, said after the hearing that team owner Eddie Jordan would make his decision on whether to continue the court proceedings this morning.

Fisichella was loaned to Jordan at the start of the 1997 season because Benetton already had existing driver contracts with Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger.

Fisichella, a former Italian Formula Three champion, drove eight races for Minardi last year before impressing Benetton with his speed and confidence in a test at Estoril last autumn.

The idea of "placing" him with Jordan - who were also paid a reputed $1 million fee to make a place for Fisichella - was with a view to the driver returning to Benetton at the end of this year.

Benetton said this was clear from the outset, but admitted that Fisichella had separately to negotiate his own driving contract with Jordan, believed to be a modest $100,000. Although the judge ruled that Jordan should cede the services of the driver, he said they should be paid the £1.5 million compensation under the terms of the original contract.

This High Court verdict comes as a major blow for Jordan who held out great hopes for the 24year-old Italian. He finished second in last month's Belgian Grand Prix and fourth in front of his home crowd at Monza 10 days ago.

Jordan now face a dilemma securing a driver of sufficient calibre to replace Fisichella. Phillips refused to comment on whether or not the loss of the Italian would open the door to Hill.

The Briton would be the obvious choice and pleasing to their sponsor, Benson & Hedges, and the Mugen Honda company which will supply their engines from the start of 1998.

However, Eddie Jordan, like the McLaren-Mercedes managing director Ron Dennis, may prove reluctant to pay the £5 million retainer which Hill is said to require.

In particular, he may be thinking in terms of Mika Salo, the 30year old Finnish driver whose three-year contract with Tyrrell expires at the end of the season.

Meanhwile, Alesi is leaving Benetton to join the Sauber team next season under a two-year contract, the Swiss-based team yesterday. Alesi, 33, will join Johnny Herbert as the team's drivers. He replaces Italian Gianni Morbidelli, who is driving for the team without a contract.

The Frenchman, who finished second in the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month at Monza, has one career victory and is third this season in the drivers' standings behind Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.

Jordan designer Gary Anderson will be watching anxiously tomorrow afternoon as Formula One scrutineers carry out a crash test on new bodywork which he is hoping to run at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix at the new A1 Ring, writes Martin McCarthy.

Should the latest bodywork fail the test, the Jordan mechanics will be under pressure to change the cars back to the standard trim in time for Thursday's acclimatisation runs.

Anderson's engineering staff are continually bringing out new developments to improve the Jordan 197 and Anderson believes the new bodywork will bring a significant improvement: "This is our second set of new bodywork this year," said the 46-year-old engineer. "The first set made changes to the rear of the car for the highspeed circuits, while this new set has changes mainly to the side pod area."

The new bodywork is expected to increase the downforce (2,000 kg at 200 mph on the 600 kg car) without any increase in drag.

Anderson is so keen to run the new set up that he is working on the basis that the new bodywork will pass the mandatory FIA crash tests. "We have had to take a decision that we will pass the crash test. If the worst comes to the worst, we can convert the cars to the old bodywork."