It is the first front-rank works engine deal that Jordan have had (their ill-fated 1992 dalliance with Yamaha is best-forgotten), and there is an awful lot of pressure to make it succeed. But Jordan did not perform as well as they would have wanted.

On the plus side, the car was quicker than that of British American Racing, arch-rivals with the same Honda engine. And it is less hard on its tyres than was last year's EJ10. But on the negative side, Jordan did not make progress in pace relative to the top teams, and they lost ground on Williams.

Although Jarno Trulli was consistently impressive in qualifying in 2001, his ultimate positions have not always been as high as they were last year - he was on the front row in Monaco in 2000, for example.

On top of that, Jordan continued to be plagued by reliability problems, getting rid of which they had set as one of their major targets for 2001. Honda is a notoriously ruthless company when it comes to Formula One, and it has made no secret of the fact that it wants to win - and soon. In fact, winning is not enough for Honda. It is in F1 to prove its technological expertise - and that means dominating in the way it did with Williams in 1986-87 and then McLaren from 1988-92.

Honda's arrival should help Jordan in two ways - it will give it a front-rank engine, inevitably improving the performance of the car, and it will also save it money.

Jordan at least can be glad it is faster than BAR - even if Jordan failed to grab fifth place in the Constructors' Championship from them.

But hanging on as the best of the rest behind the top three is not where Honda would like to be. Being flat beaten by Sauber this year was another embarrassment.