By Phil Giles
May 26 2005

Franck Montagny will replace Robert Doornbos for Friday's session at the European Grand Prix. According to the Frenchman, it's only a one off.

Eurosports website published an interview with Montagny. "This agreement suits me because I will be learning the circuit, but for the moment, this is just a one off. We will work together with Jordan at the Nurburgring and depending on how things go and how I feel in the team, we will decide if we continue or not."

"The important aspect of these two hours on track will be to see how the car is, to see how much of a margin of progression they have in order for us to continue to work together, But there is no element which could allow me to say that I have a chance of being a race driver at Jordan-Toyota," he added..

Other reports seem to contradict with this.  ITV-F1's roving numbskull Ted Kravitz interviewed him.

"It’s important for me to get an F1 seat – at least on Fridays so I can drive with the all the others." said Franck.  "It’s a good opportunity for me, for Midland Jordan, and its ok for Renault because I can grab more experience with the tyres and engine. It’s also good for Jordan because I’ve been testing the best car and I’ve developed this car for most of the year.  I can give some good information about that – it’s a good share."

So, what about the tyre differences? 

"I don’t see any advantage for Michelin – I only see an advantage for Bridgestone, and anyway, I’m not going to give a lot of information about the Michelin and ruin my relationship with them.  I’m professional, and will help as much as I can. But I’m still a Renault driver – I’ll see after what else I could be, but at the moment it’s just this Friday, just two hours and then we’ll see how it goes."

Any more Friday testing?

"We’ll see. I’ll do this weekend, see what the car’s like, what the team are like, and what chances there are to improve after that.  I’m driving one of the best cars at the moment, and it could be bad if the [Jordan] car isn’t perfect at the moment.  But if I feel we can improve it and we can do better, then we’ll see what we can get."

What about a race drive?

"Whenever you want, whatever you want – I’m ready to drive it! It’s not easy… only 20 seats in F1, some people pay to get in, some people don’t, some professional drivers, some who want to be.  I’m a test driver with Renault, one of the best teams at the moment, and I don’t want to complain too much. I would like to race, but step by step, day by day."

Meanwhile Jordan are preparing for their second race in seven days.  The Nurburgring presents a completely different challenge to the streets of Monte Carlo.

Narain said: "At first sight, it looks like the current Nurburgring is a fairly high down force track and should not be too tough on tyres," said Karthikeyan, who went straight to Germany from Monaco.  "Having said that, each race presents its own unique challenges.  The Nurburgring is a flowing track and we should reach high speeds of around 290kph on the main straight. Obviously, to achieve a competitive lap time we need good traction, particularly out of the hairpins, good chassis balance and stability under braking."

The team confirm that they will be conducting a two day test at Silverstone before the cars are packed up and shipped out to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix.