Despite setting the fastest time on the first day testing at the Italian circuit, Frentzen dropped to eighth place on day two (Wednesday) and the German says he is unsure of his Jordan team's current competitiveness.

"I'm not happy with the balance of the car," said Frenzten. "I wasn't happy with the car on Tuesday, despite setting the fastest lap, and I'm still not happy. I really don't know how competitive we are here."

The Jordan team has been blighted by reliability problems and suffered the embarrassment of both Frentzen and Trulli retiring within four laps of each other at the European GP. The main bugbear has been the EJ11's traction control system, which put Frentzen out at the Nurburging and pitched him into a mid-race spin at Magny-Cours.

"The reason for the spin was rather unusual," he said. "I was not too fast, but too slow. So slow that the traction control switched itself off automatically."

As the British Grand Prix looms next weekend, the team is testing this week at Monza in order to carry out both low downforce set-up work for the German and Italian Grands Prix later in the year and tyre evaluation ahead of the Silverstone race.

Frentzen had the run on Trulli in qualifying at Silverstone last year, putting his car on the front row and the triple GP winner will be hoping he can recapture the same form again next weekend, but it seems unlikely at this stage.