MOTOR SPORT: Niki Lauda, head of Ford's performance division, yesterday revealed the Ford deal on offer to Jordan is the same as the one troubled Arrows have been working under this year - a three-year customer deal for Cosworth engines.
For some time now Jordan have been attempting to secure a supply of Ford-badged, Cosworth-built engines of the same specification as those to be employed in future Jaguar cars and on a works basis, but Lauda yesterday confirmed no such option was currently available to the Irish team.
"The deal on offer to Eddie is the same as the one Arrows have," said Lauda. "That's three years with Ford Cosworth. That is what is on offer and it is now up to Eddie to see what he wants to do, if he wants to take the engines and get rid of the supply he has or not. It's up to him."
Lauda categorically stated if Jordan take up the proposed deal for Cosworths the engines would also be badged in the same manner Arrows currently employ, calling them Ford-Cosworth.
That rules out a works supply, blue-oval marked powerplants and means as a customer supply Jordan would have to pay for the engines - rumoured to be about $20 million in Arrows' case.
The British team is not present at the Hungaroring for this weekend's Grand Prix and, according to Lauda, has again defaulted on a payment for engines as happened at Silverstone. While it is unlikely the cash-richer Irish squad would suffer the same difficulties, taking on a paid supply of engines likely to be a specification below that running in the Jaguar is far from the deal Jordan had been attempting to secure from Ford.
Lauda's revelations seem to confirm the suspicion that Jordan will hold fast to the final year of its contract with Honda and take a works supply of the Japanese engines. Honda, despite a keenness to concentrate their efforts on the British American Racing team, are known to be unwilling to break the contract and thus suffer penalties that would allow Jordan to buy in Cosworth engines.
Meanwhile, Lauda also said that no decision had been taken on Eddie Irvine's future at Jaguar despite the fact the Irishman has apparently stated he would be willing to accept a test-driver role at the Ford-backed team next year.
The likelihood is, however, Irvine will be replaced at the end of the season and the driver currently in the frame is Minardi's Mark Webber. With Pedro de la Rosa likely to hold onto his seat at Jaguar, Webber's arrival would leave Irvine out in the cold. A swap deal with Webber, which would see Irvine move to Minardi, has been mooted but it is unlikely Minardi could afford the wages Irvine would demand, even if the Australian-Italian team secure the investment that team boss Paul Stoddart believes he is close to.
The Australian aviation entrepreneur yesterday said he had firm interest from a consortium of British investors and that the signs were good for a deal that could put Minardi on a more even financial footing. Interest from UK investors suggests Stoddart has gone cold on a deal with Saudi Prince Al-Khaled Waleed and his Irish frontman, Brendan McGuinness.
On the track yesterday, Jordan made a bright start to the weekend, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato taking fifth and sixth, respectively, in the first free practice sessions. The pair finished behind the quartet of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Williams' Ralf Schumacher and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, but Jordan's director of race and test team engineering, Gary Anderson, was pleased with the team's start.
"We concentrated mainly on evaluating tyres for the race and although we're looking good we still have a bit of work to do," he said.
Anderson will be bouyed by local weather forecasters' predictions for overcast weather for qualifying and for the race, with air tempertures expected to be a couple of degrees lower than yesterday's mid-20s figures.
Few though would bet against Michael Schumacher racking up another pole position here. On a tight circuit of few, if any, overtaking opportunitues, a pole-winning Schumacher is unlikely to be beaten over the course of 76 laps of a track that has often seen a conga line of cars running from lights to flag.
Schumacher's likely dominance is heightened by the failure of his closest racing rival, Juan Pablo Montoya, to get to grips with the circuit. Montoya had a nightmare here last year qualifying and finished eighth.
Yesterday, it appeared Montoya had had no startling revelations in the 12 months since and finished the practice session 16th, the Colombian saying he was struggling for both grip and balance.
