MEDIA 

 
 
 

Jordan tries to teach  Ralf  Schumacher   to  relax
LONDON (Apr 21, 1998 - 12:49 EDT)

While other teams concentrate on putting in lap after lap  of training, the Jordan  Formula One team  have  been  working  on  ways of calming down German driver Ralf  Schumacher.
The team said on Tuesday that Ralf, brother of former champion  Michael,  spent  most  of last Saturday doing  practice  starts at Silverstone.
"The work we did covered more than simply the physical  start itself to include  the psychology behind   a   good   start,"    explained   Jordan technical  director  Gary  Anderson.
 
 
"Ralf  has  tended to become too flustered on the starting  grid  so  we  worked  on   focusing  and relaxing.The  five  seconds  or so before the red lights   go out  can  seem  like a life time and it is important not to get  psyched up until the last two seconds.
"Having   spent   the   day   working on this, Ralf seems far  more  relaxed  about  it all so now we have to hope  he  can  carry  this through  to  the starting grid  at  Imola."
Jordan have yet  to take  a  world championship point this  season  after   three  races and  Ralf Schumacher has  yet  to  finish a race.
In Australia, he crashed on the second  lap and in   Brazil   he   spun   off  on  the  first  lap. In Argentina this month, the German qualified fifth fastest but went  out  after 22 laps.
He  fell  from  fifth   to  13th  on  the first  lap, labelled   one   of  the  worst   starts  in  grand  prix  history.
Jordan said  they  had  also made a  number of modifications   to  the  Mugen-Honda  powered 198 car  to  make it  more  competitive  for  the  San- Marino   Grand  Prix  in  Imola,  Italy,  on April 26th.
The  main  changes  are  a  longer  wheel-base, noticeable only to the expert, and aerodynamic modifications.
Jordan  said  the  changes  were to give the car greater  rear  end  stability  and  braking power for the big stops and long  sweeping exits which dominate the Imola layout.