By Phil Giles
June 17 2003

Jordan have missed one of the best days for Formula One this year.  Silverstone has quite literally been on fire with five Formula One teams choosing to test there.  The only sign of Jordan?  A sign pointing to their allocated hospitality parking area.

Even without Jordan, there was plenty of on track action for any F1 fan to enjoy.  Ferrari had brought three cars to the test.  Felipe Massa was on hand for testing duties but so were Michael and Rubens.  Williams brought Juan Pablo Montoya.  Sauber had Nick Heidfeld.  Jaguar had Antonio Pizzonia performing their test duties and BAR had brought last years Jordan incumbent Takuma Sato.  Rumour had it that Jacques and Jenson were also at the test but were enjoying a day off.

The day started off in a bath of heat.  All teams successfully completed their installation laps and set about the task of putting the hard laps in gathering data for the upcoming British Grand Prix.  There were visible modifications to the Ferrari's.  The first being a small box which was bolted to the side of the chassis, just above the suspension assembly on the left hand side.  A wire from the box disappeared into the nose cone.  Massa's Ferrari had a set of sensors over both of the front wheels presumably gathering aerodynamic data for either the team or their tyre supplier Bridgestone.

Jaguar ran quite well until the R4 coasted to the bottom of the pit lane.  Pizzonia at the helm had to be pushed the length of the pit lane back to the Jaguar garage, straight past the waiting Media. 

Ferrari appeared to be the focus of the Media's attention today.  After all, this is the only UK test session that Ferrari attend so you've got to get your pictures somewhere!  However Michael Schumacher wasn't the only one who was being bathed in the limelight.  Takuma Sato, the F1 star of the East had a Japanese TV crew monitoring his every step!  We even caught them down at the Vale corner taking pictures for the folks back home.

A star and in my opinion sorely missed from the Jordan stable, anyway we won't dwell on that.  In typical Taku fashion, he perhaps managed one of the most exciting parts of the day.  On the approach to Abbey corner Taku spun the car and managed to doughnut his way out of a gravel trap.  The squeal of rubber on tarmac could be heard half the circuit away.  However even after the spin he still put in flyer after flyer.

The best part of the day for me anyway was when at Abbey again, a F2003GA coasted to a halt with smoke coming from the front left tyre.  The tyre was clearly punctured and on closer inspection appeared to have lost a wheel nut.  I think that I was the only photographer in range and was able to take these photo's. 

As the track cleared, Michael pulled up and had a chat with Rubens as to what had happened, then a few minutes later, the Ferrari pit crew turned up with a low loader to remove the car to the garage.  The fault may have been terminal as that was the last time we saw Rubens on track.

The end of the day was fairly uneventful.  All the cars performed as you would have expected them to do.  Although there is never any guarantee that cars will run at a test, when the weather is as fine and the teams are so many, there was never a dull moment.   Even without our beloved Jordan, there was still plenty of action and I hope for the same tomorrow.