Trulli Calls for Push to the Top

Jarno Trulli believes his Jordan team is close to challenging what is becoming a close top-three in Formula One, and is urging his team to make the final step in performance.

Jordan have scored points in all of the races so far this year, but their best finishes have been fourth places in Malaysia and San Marino, and Trulli is calling for pace to be added to the reliability.

"I am asking for improvement from car, engine and the aerodynamics because we are not so far away," said Trulli. "We need to improve a little everywhere, we need to make everything better."

In 2000, Jordan slumped from starting with the potential to challenge Ferrari and McLaren to end the season in championship sixth - but their result of the year was securing a Honda engine for 2001.

"Last year we were off the pace, and this year we were much closer and much more competitive," said Trulli.

"It's important that we got the Honda deal, because now we have got a factory engine you can see people working very, very hard and going for it, because they only want to win."

But the Honda deal has come with one added pressure - the direct comparison the team has with British American Racing, who are also running the same Japanese-made powerplant.

"It's very exciting," said Trulli. "But it's a very tough job for everybody. It's going to be very interesting to see this little battle between us."