FEBRUARY 2, 2003

Paffett and Jordan

Britain's Gary Paffett is reported to still be in with a chance to race for Jordan this year. The 21-year-old McLaren protege, who won the German Formula 3 title last year is yet to decide what to do in 2003 with possibilities in Formula 3000 and the German Touring Car Championship. Paffett says he is still talking to both McLaren and Jordan. A job with McLaren would be as second test driver but there is a possibility if money could be found that Paffett could race for Jordan. Much depends of the sponsors that Jordan has been talking to and whether or not Benson & Hedges is going to stay on with the team. It is worth noting that Deutsche Post and other sponsors which have pulled out are not longer listed on the Jordan team website but B&H is still there. It is possible that McLaren might also be willing to invest some money in Paffett in order to get him trained up to race in F1 at some point in the future. A number of F1 teams have contributed to the budgets of others in order to train young drivers.

Paffett sees F1 as his future but it remains to be seen how he is going to make the move up the racing ladder.