Pantano to get Jordan seat behind Heidfeld

Formula One News: Giorgio Pantano is poised to fill the final vacant seat for the 2004 season alongside Nick Heidfeld at Jordan. Barring last-minute snags with the contract details, Jordan should confirm his appointment today and were confident enough to allow the 25-year-old Italian his first shakedown in the new Jordan-Ford EJ14 yesterday at Jerez in southern Spain.

"We have received all the necessary assurances from Pantano's management that his sponsorship will be in place by Wednesday," said Ian Phillips, Jordan's director of business development, yesterday. "Until that is in place the deal is technically still not done, of course. But we are confident it will be."

Pantano is believed to be bringing about €4.5 million in sponsorship money to Jordan from an as yet unnamed Italian clothing manufacturer.

This is some €600,000 more than was offered by the backers of the Dutch driver Jos Verstappen, who fell out with Jordan during negotiations that started before Christmas but terminated last week.

Team owner Eddie Jordan said Verstappen's backers had made "impossible demands" during the talks, which are believed to be related to the amount of advertising space those sponsors wanted on the car.

Pantano first drew admirers with a string of high-profile Kart race victories while still a teenager, and when he finally moved into cars in 2000 he stunningly won the German Formula Three championship at his first attempt.

He then finished second and third respectively in 2002 and 2003 in international Formula 3,000, the second division single-seater series.

Pantano had one-off tests with the Williams, McLaren and Benetton Formula One teams, but Jordan are convinced he has the makings of an outstandingly competitive driver.

Once his contract is confirmed Pantano is expected to share the remainder of this week's test programme with the number one driver Heidfeld at Jerez, and will probably have the opportunity to test again at another circuit before the cars are air-freighted to Melbourne later this month for the opening Australian grand prix.

Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia will be an official Williams test driver for 2004 after losing his Formula One race seat at Jaguar last year.

"It feels great to be back working with everyone at (Williams)," said the 23-year-old in a team statement. Pizzonia served as Williams test driver in 2002 before being hired by Jaguar.