SEPTEMBER 11, 2000

David Brown goes to Jordan

JORDAN GRAND PRIX has begun to rebuild its engineering team with the recruitment of David Brown for next season.

JORDAN GRAND PRIX has begun to rebuild its engineering team with the recruitment of David Brown for next season. Brown started out in Formula 1 in the early 1980s as a draftsman in the Williams drawing office. In 1987 he became NigelÊMansell's race engineer and he worked with Mansell until he moved to Ferrari at the end of 1988. Brown then worked with Thierry Boutsen until Mansell returned to Williams. In 1992 the two worked together again and Mansell won the WorldÊChampionship. In 1993 Brown engineered Alain Prost to another World title and Brown was hoping for a third title in 1994 as Ayrton Senna's race engineer. After the Brazilian was killed at Imola, Brown engineered Damon Hill and only missed the championship that year when Michael Schumacher drove into Hill after the German had crashed into a wall at Adelaide.

Brown continued his relationship with Hill in 1995 but it was a frustrating season and when Brown received an offer to work with David Coulthard at McLaren for 1996 he decided to move on. He stayed with Coulthard for just a single season before being put in charge of McLaren's Young Driver program and in 1998 he was appointed managing director of the McLaren-owned West Competition Formula 3000 team. The team narrowly missed the 1998 F3000 title with Nick Heidfeld but won the title in dominant form in 1999. When West withdrew its support the team found funding from mySAP.com but this year was very disappointing and the team is not expected to continue.

Brown will now move to Jordan where he will be chief engineer.

The team has also signed a deal with Arrows chief designer Egbahl Hamidy to join Jordan as soon as he is available. Hamidy is under contract with Arrows until the end of December 2001 but is unlikely to stay until the end of the deal although an early departure will mean that he will probably have to pay damages to Arrows.