This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Jaguar Looking to Cosworth Silly Season Swings Through Jordan

Jaguar Looking to Cosworth

With the successful introduction of a whole new engine in the Indy Racing League, Cosworth have again demonstrated they can build with the best. In this case, General Motors Chevrolet engine was woefully off the pace, so they called in the Ford-owned specialists to put together a new unit that redresses the balance. For Cosworth, it is a very important coup, particularly considering the way their involvement has changed in the other leading series they supply.

Since CART lost the support of Toyota and Honda, Ford has taken on the supply of all engines, which changes the complexion of their participation completely: the emphasis now is on delivering consistent performance to all, for minimum cost. Doing so is largely an exercise in de-tuning to ensure the longevity of the units, so they can run for up to half a dozen races. It has the advantage of conveying title sponsorship on the series, but without competition to beat, the marketing benefits are massively reduced. Furthermore, despite producing and preparing engines for all the teams, fewer units need to be made overall through the season.

Formula One, on the other hand, is definitely full of competition, but the Ford branded teams are not looking too good. Despite the rather lucky win in Brazil, the Jordan outfit look only marginally better than Minardi. Jaguar, who run the latest Cosworth Formula One engine, are looking substantially better than the backmarkers, but rarely trouble the front of the grid: they are behind BMW, Honda, Mercedes and Renault in the standings, and that is not the platform that Ford's marketing people want. Also, despite servicing three teams, two do not test, and longevity has been increased, bringing the whole year down to under 100 units.

When discussions began with General Motors, Cosworth were quick to pick up on a triple opportunity. From an immediate perspective, the prospect of a nearly open chequebook at a time when budgets are tight is always a tempting proposition, as despite being a part of the Ford empire, the company's balance sheet is still very important: shareholders want to see profits. Similarly, having orders on the book ensures continued business for the engineers who build and prepare the engines: avoiding layoffs saves immediate costs from redundancy payoffs, and helps moral. At the same time, it brought a huge bonus to Ford's marketing department, as the biggest motor company in the world has approached them to build a competitive engine. Better still, on proving competitive, it would let Ford compete effectively against Honda and Toyota again.

Of course, getting away from the Cosworth perspective, another Ford outfit is looking forward to the engine designers getting their eyes back on to the Formula One ball. It is all very well coming up with a completely new engine for a rival series, but Jaguar would quite happily swap that whole program for a handful more horsepower or reduced fuel consumption. The chassis is not the class of the field, but a top class engine goes a long way to making up for it. Indeed, having apparently come off the boil since the season began, the team are merrily putting the largest portion of the blame on the engine development program, claiming progress has been behind the curve of their rivals, whilst the chassis has been improving on a par. In the political world of Ford, apportion of blame is considerably more important than actually solving the problems, as protection from the corporate axe is vital; meanwhile, the rest of the paddock has barely noticed, and doesn't really care: in Formula One, the only thing that speaks is results.

Now that the IRL program is up and running, development on that engine is locked down for the rest of the season, so the Cosworth designers have been concentrating on the Formula One program again for the last month or so. Looking to the remaining races, from the factors under their control (which is everything except tyres), Jaguar see Cosworth as their best bet to outscore BAR, potentially claiming fifth overall: whilst development on the chassis has been halted by the current test ban, Cosworth are working the dynamometers flat out, with evolutions continuing in two directions: fuel economy and power.

The next significant economy improvement is due for Hungary, bringing down consumption by between three and five percent. It is also supposed to smooth out the power delivery, but at a fractional cost to torque in the middle of the range. Most of this should come from enhancements to the traction control and engine management software. At the following race in Italy, or in the US if the previous evolution is troubled, the last significant power step is due - which makes sense, as both places reward powerful engines. Getting absolute horsepower figures is next to impossible, but the most believable number mentioned is 840bhp - which would put it right up with BMW and Ferrari.

Even should Cosworth deliver an engine that compares favourably with the front runners, Jaguar won't be competing for race wins. But it would be more interesting, as blaming the engine for lack of performance would be a much trickier proposition.

Silly Season Swings Through Jordan

Having had the kind of season that might dishearten any owner, Eddie Jordan has been putting his mind towards turning the team around in 2004.

There has been plenty of speculation that Giancarlo Fisichella is looking for a way out: the team have not been quite what he remembered from his previous tenure, and the car has definitely not lived up to expectations. His frustration has been plain to see, and the media at large have made the most of it. Jordan himself has been open about talking to other teams, looking to find Fisichella a better drive for next season - though there was motivation in the form of a 'finders fee'. It leaves a hole that will need to be filled: a task that the media are prepared to speculate on all year. They all start with a 'wanted' ad something like this:

"Driver wanted. Must be fast, not too expensive, experienced enough to get the car set up quickly and provide pointers for paying co-driver. Ability to help develop the car a big bonus, given limited test running. Must be willing to work to help back-end team deliver on promises."

From the current crop of recognised drivers, that leaves a very narrow field.

Top of the media prediction list is Nick Heidfeld. His career at Sauber is stagnating, particularly as he failed to make Frentzen look old and slow this season. He has enough experience to help Jordan develop the car, and provided he loses the chip on his shoulder from being passed over for Raikkonen by McLaren, he would fit the bill nicely. As a bonus, it fits rumours that Jordan have landed a Mercedes customer deal next season that could take them up the grid.

Another discussing the post is current Renault test driver Allan McNish, who is keen to return to a full racing role. Jordan are not up and coming like the French outfit, but it would give him a chance to showcase his talents again - and more to the point, return to racing. His experience from Renault is surprisingly valuable to Jordan, as it includes a strong insights into what brought the team forward.

A third strong contender is Pedro de la Rosa, an ex-Jordan man who is currently developing McLaren's latest car. He is fairly fast, but unlike fellow McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz, he would bring sponsorship, and is a known quantity in the team from his previous time there.

Of course, where Eddie Jordan is concerned, predicting his actual appointments is traditionally an exercise fraught with problems. The Irishman has a weather eye on the up-and-coming scene, and would dearly like to restore his reputation as the best spotter of future talent to bring on from junior formulae in the paddock. He also has a cashflow problem filling the budget for 2004. Needless to say, a fast driver from Formula Nippon who can fund himself for the drive stands every real chance of talking himself into a Jordan seat next year.