News - Formula BMW World Final 2007

The final action for Jordan in the 2007 season was to compete in the Formula BMW World Final, November 23-25th, which was held at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, in Valencia. The event was a fantastic 4 day experience that was the culmination of the years Formula BMW Championships from around the world, UK, Germany, USA and Asia. There was a lot of publicity surrounding this event, as the winner would receive a F1 BMW test as well as huge prize monies. The weekend was attended by the Formula 1 BMW team with Drivers Nick Heidfield and Sebastian Vettel as well as other BMW drivers and personnel including BMW’s Motorsport Chief Mario Theissen and World Touring Car triple World Champion Andy Priaulx.

Jordan came into the event dreaming of a huge result after what had been an impressive first year in single seater racing in the UK. Improving throughout the year and after finally clinching his long awaited podium at the final round of the UK Championship Jordan knew that if everything went his way this race could well turn out to be a very successful one.

After travelling to Spain on the Tuesday, Jordan had a few days to settle after the travelling before testing started early on Friday. The timetable of the event was very congested and with having to adjust to driving on wide European circuits, Jordan had to get into the groove very quickly. An immediate problem had occurred before Jordan had even reached the black tarmac of the circuit, the team, believing that the schedule would allow enough time for a change in engine between testing and qualifying which was also on the Friday, had put in a test engine which was significantly worse than Jordan’s race motor. After trying his utmost to ring every last inch of speed out of the car Jordan struggled on the first day and only qualified 14th in his group.

Saturdays program was the qualifying heats, a slightly complicated system that involved everyone racing everyone, with each driver competing in 3 heats out of the 6 in total. After a poor qualifying Jordan had to start 14th on each of the 3 heats. In the first race all was going well until a mechanical fault which took a lap to get fixed meant that he finished in 16th position, a lap down. In the second heat Jordan faired better finishing in a comfortable 10th place. The third heat also went relatively well with Jordan coming home in 11th place.

Before the final on the Sunday, the team and Jordan had made drastic efforts to try and make the car more suited to the unfamiliar European style circuit as well as changing the engine to his race engine. For the final the car setup was transformed and the hope was that Jordan would now have the speed that had eluded him so far. However after his poor finishes in the heats, Jordan had a massive amount of work to do in the World Final. Starting from a lowly 22nd on the grid in the ultra completive multinational 35 driver field, Jordan drove one of the races of his life with a notably improved car, to finish incredibly inside the top ten in 9th position. In the race Jordan recorded the fastest time of the British and indeed the UK series drivers, as well as setting the 5th fastest lap overall. A race in which he overtook more cars than any other driver showed that without the difficult start to the weekend he could well have been well into the top six.

Jordan said: " The weekend started pretty badly, I knew that I should be quick here as the circuit really does suit my style of driving. Its so wide and grippy that you really do have to be ultra smooth and inch perfect to do a good lap. Unfortunately as the Team didn’t really have any prior knowledge to these type of circuits it was hard for us in the beginning. But the car got there in the end and once it did I was able to drive it like I had been trying to all weekend. It felt much more stable which allowed me to put up a fight in the Final. I was very quick as well!! In fact the 5th fastest and that in itself is pretty impressive considering this is my debut and rookie year and the standard of opposition I was up against. I feel that without the bad luck and if I had started inside the top ten, I would definitely have been pushing for a podium. It was a really good race and it was certainly an eye opener to European racing, with so many cars you really have to make sure of your moves and make sure that you almost own the track all the time. I cant wait for whatever next year brings, but at the moment we are really trying to secure the budget! The plans are to do the Formula BMW Euro series which is a tremendous opportunity for me, but of course until we find the huge budget that will not be confirmed quite yet!"

"I would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me this year. My sponsors, my personal sponsors club, the team, the mechanics and my family! It really has been quite a good first year in top level single seater racing!"