Give it to Pantano - they did! Confirmed.

[santori]

I do hope the second Jordan seat now goes to Giorgio Pantano. A hugely talented driver who has had some bad luck in recent years, losing the seat with which Bourdais won the F3000 title because Bourdais had more money; having his CART deal disappear because the team he'd signed for never appeared; having to fall back on a mid-ranked F3000 team (and still winning races)....
Certainly worthy of a place in F1 and for once with the money to back his talent.

[Bononi]

Well, Santori. There are a lot of drivers that deserve the seat, and Pantano is one of them. But F1 is famous for being a very closed circus...

[steve nielsen]

there are only 20 seats and a lot more drivers to fill them.

[Raglanparade]

Well there could be more then 20 seats if Bernie let the teams field as many cars as they liked. Just like the old days. People could buy Ferrari's from last season and run them. This two car team thing is stupid. I would love to see Grids of 30-35 drivers.. it would spice up tv viewing so much and i would watch f1 so much more..

-jason

btw. give the boy a go... its gotta be better then Mcnish and Firman

[jj2728]

Originally posted by jasonhill9884
Well there could be more then 20 seats if Bernie let the teams field as many cars as they liked. Just like the old days. People could buy Ferrari's from last season and run them. This two car team thing is stupid. I would love to see Grids of 30-35 drivers.. it would spice up tv viewing so much and i would watch f1 so much more..

show me a race where there were 30 to 35 cars after 1950.....it won't and should not happen....too many cars and too many chances for something to go very wrong....i'd watch f1 if there were only 15 cars on the grid...and believe me, there have been a few of those.....

[Raglanparade]

yeah.. but you need something to go wrong. I would rather watch an Action packed grid of 30 cars, then a boring procession of 15 cars. But then again you might tell me to watch CART if you want to see action.
F1 over the last few years has been a procession, with the only real passing happening in the Pit Lane. Something needs to be done to make passing possible on the track. The f1's used to pass each other at Hockenheim, and then they butchered it up !!!
I just want a bit more action in a GP weekend, and i dont think im asking for much.

-Jason

[Led ZeppF1]

Well, I prefer Bourdais or Wirdheim to the second in Jordan. Unfortunately, these two reigning F3000 champion hadn't link with Jordan.

[BootsOntheSide]

Actually there was loads of overtaking last season, especially at Interlagos, Suzuka and Silverstone. True that Hockenheim used to have lots of passing, but the unusual results were often down to many mechanical failures. Just because Jacques moved up to 3rd there in 2001 (for example)doesn't mean he passed anyone

Jason, I don't honestly think you're understanding the practical limitations behind entering cars. If Ferrari, McLaren etc ran more than 2 works cars, it would greatly reduce the chances of anyone else scoring points. Privateer teams will only enter if they can justify the massive cost with advertising potential for sponsors, and they won't get that from running in 15th. Other than the late 80s and early 90s, 26 cars has been the highest level of entry, and there were less than 20 for a long time.

Pantano would be as good as anyone. His F3000 record was quite impressive, and I'd forgotten about his CART experiences. With an experienced lead driver, a youngster in the second car MIGHT be the way to go. If he's got the sponsorship in place, he's a reasonable choice.

[cos]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Pantano would be as good as anyone. His F3000 record was quite impressive, and I'd forgotten about his CART experiences.

Hardly much CART experience - he never go to sit in a car IIRC!! But he would be a good choice I think.

[bosch!]

Give it to Pantano? EJ might *Sell* it to Pantano

[BootsOntheSide]

By 'experiences' I meant the fiasco with the team never officially entering. 'Experience' it wasn't - a strange quirk of language that the plural can mean less, not more.

[Mekola]

Today, Italiaracing announced that Pantano will be the second Jordan F1 driver, and that the official new will be announced next Monday, when Giorgio will test the EJ14 for the first time at Jerez.



That is a shocking and delighting new for me! The two best Italian youngster prospects, GianmarÃ*a Bruni and Giorgio Pantano, will be in F1 this year!!!

(only rests José-MarÃ*a López, for next year (or this? ))

[Mekola]

Originally posted by bosch!
Give it to Pantano? EJ might *Sell* it to Pantano

I presume there will be "Brask" logos on the Jordan this year.

[DriverT]

Originally posted by jasonhill9884
yeah.. but you need something to go wrong. I would rather watch an Action packed grid of 30 cars, then a boring procession of 15 cars. But then again you might tell me to watch CART if you want to see action.
F1 over the last few years has been a procession, with the only real passing happening in the Pit Lane. Something needs to be done to make passing possible on the track.

It used to be 30 cars and then they had the rigmarole of pre-qualifying to get teams such as LIFE and COLONI out of it.

F1 is a boring procession? I don't think so, there was more overtaking than ever last season. It was great. Think about 94 and 95. Now that was (apart from Australia 94) as boring as hell. It used to be much more of a procession than it is now.

CART = action? Did you see the Brands Hatch CART race? There was not a single overtaking move.

[NiceGuyEddie]

CART = action? Did you see the Brands Hatch CART race? There was not a single overtaking move.

I took the afternoon from work off, to see that race on TV

[Raglanparade]

Yeah. I understand that things maybe arent as bad as i make them out to be.
About all the points going to one team. Why not have a drivers championship, where every driver can score points.
But for the constructors championship. You have the same system as WRC. Say Ferrari have a 4 car team. You have Schumi, Barra, Fisi, and Massa. They finish 1,2,3,4 in the Italian GP. The drivers get 10, 8, 6, 5 respectively for there drivers championship. But, for the constructors, you only have two nominated drivers. (eg. Schumi and Barra).. then Ferrari still only get 16 for the constructors, and say if ralf finsihed 5th behind the ferraris, then he would get the 6points for williams as the third nominated driver for the constructors champ.
It could work like this so then you could have as many cars as a team wants to field, and only two of them are responsible for the constructors. EJ and Paul could make money. Build chassis and cars with engines and basically sell each race of the season. Paul has 4 minardis. He could basically put each seat on the market each round. and make money outof that.
There is so much oppurtunity.
The v8supercars here in aus have 32-36 car fields and there are no major dramas. (cept rodney forbes. hes a f**k )

-jason

[louis]

breaking news!

Pantano fans wil be glad that he has got the second seat at jordan!

I was talking to a CAD designer at jordan and said the second driver was italian and came second in the F3000 in 2003. He is carrying alot of sponsorship money to bring to the team

all this information is top secret!

[Gaz]

That top secret you've posted it on here!!!very, very good news! I think it's good a young gun is being given a chance! Firman had his and was very average whilst McNish had his and although didn't do anything wrong hardly set the world alite. It would have been wrong for the seat to have been given to one of them and good luck to Pantano...if this report is true!

[santori]

He's a real scrapper. Just what Jordan needs, I think.

[nippy]

Originally posted by jasonhill9884
Well there could be more then 20 seats if Bernie let the teams field as many cars as they liked. Just like the old days. People could buy Ferrari's from last season and run them. This two car team thing is stupid. I would love to see Grids of 30-35 drivers.. it would spice up tv viewing so much and i would watch f1 so much more..

This is all very well and good. But i can't help but feel this would do nothing more than drive teams away who couldnt afford to run three or more cars. The reason Arrows are no longer with us is because they couldn't afford to run two and the same was begining to happen to Jordan and Minardi that is why there was such a big shake up on the rules to help adress the costs of going f1 racing. e.g $16.5 million to get three Mclarens and the team to 16 grand prixs per year and this year its 18 rounds. But bringing back Prost and Arrows is something i would like to see.

[Kicking-back]

While the late eighties and early nineties had big entries, the grid was still 26 cars - so you had a lot of teams who never qualified for the race and who had no real place in F1.

I'd never like the grid to fall below 20 cars but if new teams come in they must be up to F1 standards and not another Life or Andrea Moda.

[Kicking-back]

And, back on topic, I think Pantano is deserving of the Jordan drive.

Personally, I'd have liked to see McNish there, but Pantano is a great talent who's well worth the chance.

And on the whole, Heidfeld and Pantano is a better line up than the one EJ had last season.

[BSchneiderFan]

Pantano's good but let's see how he does at the top of the sport. I would rather have seen McNish get the drive, and, sadly, I think this means the end of Allan McNish's all-too-brief Formula 1 career. Let's hope he can recover his success in sportscars.

Pantano has a lot to prove. Enge, Bourdais and Wilson are arguably all more deserving F3000 graduates, but I suppose Pantano is at least better than Baumgartner...

[sonic]

I really rate Pantano - but I'm sad he's signed for Jordan.

Being a charger in a new class he will push the limits, crash and 'get involved' like Massa and Sato and I doubt Jordan can afford a driver like that this season - so I hope has bought a lot of Brask sponsorship with him.

I just hope we don't see his career go the same way as Firman's at the end of the year (if the cash lasts that long) but then again I guess you can't sit in F3000 for the rest of your life.

He'll be exciting!

[climb]

Pantano is a talented driver, no doubt; none the less, I fear Jordan is not the right seat to emerge, cause of the enormous problems of reliability they showed last year.
If things don't change (and such an offseason doesn't give us many hopes) it will be hard for Giorgio.
As an Italian, I'm obviously happy to see another fellow-countryman on the track. 4 italians: haven't been so many in years.