29th November - Jordan's facilities to be expanded.


The Current HQ
Between now and the start of the new season the Jordan-Honda team will be working hard to hugely expand their headquarters at Silverstone and wind tunnel at Brackley.

It has been announced that the team will invest in excess of $150,000 over the winter months to expand both the factory and number of staff.

Two new mezzanine levels will be built at the existing Silverstone HQ. These will accommodate storage and manufacturing for composites, allow the relocation and doubling in size of the fabrication shop, plus the doubling in size of the hydraulics department, which will also be housed in a new area of the factory away from dust pollution which is was an aggravating factor in Jordan’s gear box reliability problems during the 2000 season.
Jordan’s wind tunnel facility in nearby Brackley will increase its office space by 50% to accommodate more model designers and aerodynamicists.

The expansion measures are being taken to alleviate Jordan’s big space problems in the short term, but plans are in place to move to a bigger purpose-built factory in the medium to long term.

By the time the team travels to Australia for the start of the 2001 World Championship, the staff numbers will have increased from the current 220 to 250. In addition, up to 25 staff from Honda now work daily at Jordan Grand Prix in a dedicated office. Their vital work allows full collaboration between the two partners to enable a smooth integration of Honda’s Athena engine management system. Currently it is being installed in the EJ10 for testing in December and January as the team works hard towards the launch of their 2001 challenger.