Brazilian GP preview - Jordan Ford.

This year's Brazilian Grand Prix will feature a number of important milestones for Jordan Grand Prix and its engine partner Ford Cosworth.

Not only will this be Jordan's 200th Grand Prix but it will also mark the 700th event since the FIA World Championship started in 1950 and provide Ford Cosworth with a remarkable 25 per cent success rate as a result of its 175 Formula One race victories.

Jordan Ford made its Formula One debut in the 1991 USA Grand Prix in Phoenix, Arizona, and the team scored its first points at its fifth race when Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot came fourth and fifth in Canada.

Jordan finished its first season fifth in the Championship, a year in which 18 teams competed and which witnessed Michael Schumacher make his F1 debut with Jordan Ford at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Since then 24 drivers have raced for Jordan, seven of whom are race winners, including two World Champions [Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill plus fellow GP winners Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Eddie Irvine, Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Jean Alesi and Thierry Boutsen].

Another ten drivers who raced for Jordan scored podium finishes in their careers, meaning that more than 70 per cent of the team's drivers have been of podium-scoring calibre.

Jordan has won three races: the historic 1-2 maiden win with Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher at the Belgian Grand Prix 1998, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen took victory in the French and Italian Grands Prix in 1999. Jordan has had fourteen further podium finishes (including two in Brazil) and two pole positions (Belgian Grand Prix 1994, Rubens Barrichello and European Grand Prix 1999, Heinz-Harald Frentzen).

"Have we really done 200 races?" noted Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive. "There have been some highs and lows in the twelve years that we've been in Formula One and I'm proud of my team and what we have achieved, against the odds.

"I've always said that the best times for me were firstly surviving 1991, our first season, and after that, of course, the race wins, particularly our 1-2 at Spa in 1998. Any team boss who's been up there with his driver on the winner's rostrum will tell you - once you've felt the thrill, you're addicted. I can't wait for that to return."

Martin Whitaker Director of Motorsport, Ford of Europe, added: "The Ford Motor Company began life as a result of race track success in October 1901 when Henry Ford won a 10 mile race at Grosse Point, Michigan driving a 26 horsepower, 2 cylinder machine. As a result of that success, Henry Ford found sufficient financial backing and within two years he had started the Henry Ford Company. A world famous marque was born.

"In 2003 we celebrate the company's centenary and this is also a year that sees a return for the company to the formula that has witnessed its greatest heritage races. 175 Grand Prix victories puts us at the top of the all time victory list. And it is fitting that we should contest the 700th race with Jordan, not only one of the teams' that has been powered by Cosworth engine in the past, but also the team making its double centenary in Sao Paulo."

This weekend it will be up to Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman, to uphold team honours and both will be eager to score their first points of 2003.

"I have never had the opportunity to visit any other parts of the beautiful country that is Brazil," commented Fisichella, "but I do love the Interlagos circuit and I have had some good results here including second place in 2000.

"The Paulista track is one of my favourites together with Spa, Montreal and Monaco. I trained and prepared hard for Sepang but unfortunately I did not get off the mark. So my target for the Brazilian Grand Prix is to take the chequered flag and bring points to the team and looking at the way the car ran strongly with Ralph in Malaysia, I know I can get both jobs done."

Team-mate Firman added: "I'm looking forward to this race very much after my experience in Malaysia. I have proved myself in a full Grand Prix distance and really enjoyed the battles on the track.

"The Brazilian Grand Prix is another physical one as it's anti-clockwise and the track is very bumpy, but fitness wasn't a problem for me in Malaysia so I'm not too worried. I don't think I've raced anticlockwise before so I'll wait and see whether that's any different, really I just can't wait to get stuck into another race."