Jordan Vows to Get Leaner and Meaner

Jordan will become leaner and meaner, shedding staff if necessary, to ensure the team's survival among Formula One's elite, owner Eddie Jordan has said.

The team, one of just four still in existence to have won a Grand Prix in the last four years, have yet to score a point after four races of a season clouded by an increasingly dark economic climate.

At the last San Marino Grand Prix, neither Italian Giancarlo Fisichella nor Japan's Takuma Sato made it to the finish after suffering hydraulics problems.

"I think we will have to get meaner... in many aspects of how we go about it," Jordan told BBC radio on Friday when asked about the situation.

"Inevitably things will change. The entrepreneurial teams like myself can no longer go on spending money that isn't there."

"I will make sure that the team becomes much tighter, more committed, harder," he added. "If it means having to make redundancies I will make those redundancies because nobody can ever be as great as the team."

Jordan had already axed some jobs before the start of the season and technical director Eghbal Hamidy has been officially "on holiday" since the first race.

Tough Decision

The Irish boss, whose team have one of the strongest images in the sport and a big fan club, said he owed it to supporters to make tough decisions. "They (sponsors, staff and fans) deserve Jordan to make the decisions - maybe very hard, maybe very tough - right at this moment that will procure the long term survival and greatness of Jordan to come back and win races again."

The next race is in Spain, where the team picked up a fourth place last year with Italian Jarno Trulli - now departed for Renault. Jordan said he could not swear the team had bottomed out and that Barcelona would be the first sign of an upward trend, but he had to believe so after positive recent testing.

"I think the reality and performance of the last couple of days was very significant and very helpful," he said.

The team's Honda engine, shared by British American Racing who have also yet to score a point, has been low on power but the team had a modest boost at Imola and expect more by Canada in June.

Jordan was also asked whether he might walk away from Formula One if he felt there was no way the team could compete with the likes of Ferrari and Williams.

"I don't want to address that yet. You are talking about an extreme set of circumstances and one that I don't think needs a lot of time dwelling on," he replied.

But he made clear how much he felt the pain at the team's slide since their all-time high of 1999 when they finished the season third overall.

"Inside there is somebody really hurting and something really eating me," he said. "I need to perform, not just for myself and my family, but for everybody associated with Jordan and the dream that was and still is burning so bright inside me."