Jordan to Test EJ15B at Barcelona

The car is a revised version of their current EJ15, powered by a Toyota engine.

The new chassis will be tested on Thursday and Friday by Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan, who scored the team's first points of the season at the United States Grand Prix, where only six cars took the start.

Jordan have been struggling to beat rivals Minardi since the small Anglo-Italian squad introduced their first new car in over three years.

But with the new EJ15B, the Silverstone-based squad are confident they will be able to open the gap to Minardi and fight with Red Bull and Sauber.

"Until we conduct our initial track test at Barcelona on Thursday and Friday, it is hard to say exactly how much of an improvement the new EJ15B will be," said sporting director Adrian Burgess. "The results are a long study of the problems we have with the current car.

"We have addressed as many points and issues as we could without designing a completely new car. This is an updated version. We think we have made substantial gains in terms of downforce and drag reduction. The car should be far more efficient than the previous model and it certainly looks a step closer to the opposition.

"If it performs as well as it looks, hopefully we will be looking forward to challenging the Red Bull and Sauber cars and being further ahead of Minardi."

The car is expected to make its racing debut at the French Grand Prix next week.