FEBRUARY 22, 2002

Jordan's new sponsorship package

THERE was not much surprising about the launch of the DHL Jordan Honda team in a hangar at Brussels Airport - a DHL hub - except that there was very little in the way of backing from Benson & Hedges and am awful lot of support from DHL and its parent company Deutsche Post. As expected DHL has taken the title sponsorship in a deal worth around $35m a year for three years. The Deutsche Post deal is worth around $10m a year.

The interesting thing about the launch was that from the side the car features no Benson & Hedges sponsorship at all although from the front the tobacco brand can be seen on the nose and the front wings. This however is a major reduction compared to previous years and there is not much else on the car at the moment.

However with DHL and Deutsche Post the team has a guaranteed budget for the season ahead and with TV money and smaller sponsorship deals Jordan's budget is probably in the region of $65m.

DHL (Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is one of the world's biggest courier companies, operating more than 250 jets in 228 countries. The company has been controlled by Deutsche Post since 1998.

Eddie Jordan says that he thinks Giancarlo Fisichella is one of the top three racing talents in the world and says he expects the Italian to be winning races this year. Fisichella has finished second in Grands Prix on five occasions in recent years but has never won one.

Jordan is also short of wins in recent seasons with the team's last victory coming in September 1999.

Fisichella praised the new Honda engine, saying that it was "much better than the old one". This conflicts with reports within both Jordan and British American Racing but there has been feverish development in recent weeks and so the spotlight will be on the team to see how it does in Melbourne.

The optimistic nature of the launch will need to be backed up by results because another bad year is not going to do anything for the team.

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