The Jordan-Ford EJ13 has a reputable case to be one of many worst System 1 vehicles ever to win a Grand Prix. It could be a colossal understatement to recommend that its shock victory courtesy of Giancarlo Fisichella on the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix got here in opposition to the run of play throughout a season by which it proved slower than all bar Minardi by a metric of supertimes.
Taking the chaotic, prematurely concluded Interlagos race out of the equation, Fisichella solely outscored rookie team-mate Ralph Firman by a metric of 2-1 by ending seventh at Indianapolis. Firman’s solely level with the automobile that habitually introduced up the tail finish of the midfield behind Jaguar (normally qualifying higher in Mark Webber’s arms than it raced), Toyota, BAR and Sauber got here with eighth in Barcelona.
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Maybe unfairly, his 12 months is greatest remembered for the rear wing failure throughout apply on the Hungaroring that resulted in a 150mph impression with the limitations and left Firman briefly unconscious. This compelled him to overlook two races whereas nameless System 3000 racer Zsolt Baumgartner plodded round in his place, leaving no scarcity of causes to miss the EJ13 when selecting a favorite automobile from a profitable profession.
And but Firman doesn’t decide the Dallara-Mugen F396 by which he captured the 1996 British System 3 title, the Honda NSX by which he turned Tremendous GT champion with Daisuke Ito in 2007, and even the Reynard-Mugen 01L that set him on the best way to F1 by successful the 2002 System Nippon crown. Regardless of the latter being “handling-wise and driving-wise in all probability the perfect automobile I ever drove”, the son of Van Diemen founder Ralph Sr can’t look past the Jordan.
“It is acquired to be the F1 automobile, hasn’t it?” says Firman rhetorically. “That has to beat anything.”
Firman is obvious that the feelings that encompass being a full-time F1 driver, even when just for one season, is what elevates the EJ13 to a prized standing quite than its precise efficiency relative to the competitors.

Firman spent a difficult 2003 within the EJ13, however regardless of its awkward traits with the ability to name it residence was gratifying
Photograph by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Photographs
“Regardless that the Jordan wasn’t the perfect one on the time, getting an opportunity to drive in F1 for a season is a really particular factor,” he explains. “That know-how is to date above anything. They had been, particularly on the time, very light-weight, high-powered, excessive downforce, nimble vehicles.”
However these descriptions had been hardly ever utilized in affiliation with the EJ13 in interval. Having switched from works Honda engines to buyer Cosworth V10s, Jordan slumped from sixth within the 2002 constructors’ championship to ninth in 2003. Nevertheless, its lack of aerodynamic growth was arguably a higher contributing issue than the change in powerplant.
Funds had been tight, and the automobile ended the 12 months at Suzuka hardly distinguishable from the way it had began out in Melbourne. Firman concedes that lack of grip was its pervading attribute.
“I want I had one other 12 months [in F1], as a result of there’s fairly lots of people I raced in opposition to in decrease formulation that I beat who had an extended profession there” Ralph Firman
“It was really terrible, I had unpredictable oversteer far and wide!” he says. “I by no means felt assured [and] comfy in it.”
So as to add insult to damage, “for the entire season” Firman says he was “pushing the brake pedal on the best way into all of the corners, which was making it unstable” – however this was not picked up on the info. It’s quite becoming of the narrative of Firman’s season, which is maybe greatest encapsulated by his woes at Interlagos.
On what constituted the workforce’s final hurrah earlier than Jordan was offered to Alex Shnaider on the eve of the 2005 season, Firman was a casualty of a suspension failure on the pitstraight as he braked for the primary nook on lap 18. Having began from the pitlane and stopped one lap later than Fisichella to prime off with gas, Firman was operating proper in his team-mate’s wheel tracks when his right-front nook collapsed. By a stroke of luck, his out-of-control automobile prevented Fisichella earlier than cannoning into the equally luckless Toyota of Oliver Panis.
Firman believes “I might have received or completed on the rostrum at the least in Brazil” as he was on the identical technique because the eventual winner. He regards it as “the largest remorse” of his racing profession on a day “we had been flying alongside”.

Firman’s premature suspension failure at Interlagos thankfully prevented wiping out his team-mate, straight forward of him, with Panis the unfortunate get together changing into swept up
Photograph by: James Moy
“Which may have modified my profession in F1, who is aware of,” he says. “I want I had one other 12 months, as a result of there’s fairly lots of people I raced in opposition to in decrease formulation that I beat who had an extended profession there, and it might have been good to have gotten a shot at doing that.”
Firman’s final outing within the EJ13 got here at Jerez in December, a matter of weeks after he’d loved a memorable blast on the Macau Guia Circuit in a uncommon up to date F1 demonstration run. Though there was nothing at stake, the winner of the Macau Grand Prix in 1996 wasn’t going to move up on the chance to actually “push it fairly arduous”. He remembers it as “an amazing expertise”, even when his variety of laps over the weekend had been in single digits.
“We solely acquired six or seven laps in I feel, but it surely was nice enjoyable blasting round there,” he says. “I feel everybody was most nervous about getting across the hairpin… We simply turned up, they put a excessive downforce bundle on and we cracked on with it.”
However sometimes for Firman’s 12 months, not every little thing went to plan. He remembers coming nearer than he would have preferred to an costly gaffe attributable to, of all issues, a neighborhood drinks vendor…
“I had a fast spin there, however acquired away with it,” chuckles Firman. “There was a man promoting chilly drinks beside the circuit. We had been doing the demo on the finish of the day, after everybody else had run, so he should have offered all his drinks, dumped his ice bucket and it flowed below the barrier onto the circuit.
“A puddle appeared on the finish of the primary straight, I went by it and spun within the braking space of the primary nook, however fortunately I finished earlier than the barrier and stored going, pottered round. That might have been embarrassing!”

A memorable blast on Macau’s streets marked a farewell of types
Photograph by: Mark Capilitan