The Jordan-Ford EJ13 has a credible case to be one of the worst Formula 1 cars ever to win a Grand Prix. It would be a colossal understatement to suggest that is shock victory courtesy of Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix came against the run of play during a season in 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 only outscored rookie team-mate Ralph Firman by a metric of 2-1 by finishing seventh at Indianapolis. Firman’s only point with the car that habitually brought up the tail end of the midfield behind Jaguar (usually qualifying better in Mark Webber’s hands than it raced), Toyota, BAR and Sauber came with eighth in Barcelona.
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Perhaps unfairly, his year is best remembered for the rear wing failure during practice at the Hungaroring that resulted in a 150mph impact with the barriers and left Firman briefly unconscious. This forced him to miss two races while anonymous Formula 3000 racer Zsolt Baumgartner plodded around in his place, leaving no shortage of reasons to overlook the EJ13 when choosing a favourite car from a successful career.
And yet Firman doesn’t pick the Dallara-Mugen F396 in which he captured the 1996 British Formula 3 title, the Honda NSX in which he became Super GT champion with Daisuke Ito in 2007, or even the Reynard-Mugen 01L that set him on the way to F1 by winning the 2002 Formula Nippon crown. Despite the latter being “handling-wise and driving-wise probably the best car I ever drove”, the son of Van Diemen founder Ralph Sr can’t look beyond the Jordan.
“It’s got to be the F1 car, hasn’t it?” says Firman rhetorically. “That has to beat anything else.”
Firman is clear that the emotions that surround being a full-time F1 driver, even if only for one season, is what elevates the EJ13 to a prized status rather than its actual performance relative to the competition.
Firman spent a tricky 2003 in the EJ13, but despite its awkward traits being able to call it home was gratifying
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
“Even though the Jordan wasn’t the best one at the time, getting a chance to drive in F1 for a season is a very special thing,” he explains. “That technology is so far above anything else. They were, especially at the time, very lightweight,…
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