Allan McNish was dropped by Renault in September

The Scot was released from his position as Renault's test driver earlier this year, despite praise for his driving.

Now he is determined to return to F1 in a competitive role after a season with Toyota two seasons ago.

"I firmly believe I can do the job for Jordan (and) after such a good 2003 with Renault it has only increased my desire to be racing again," he said.

"I'm still talking with Jordan at the moment and things are progressing. I've visited the factory and seen the car and the wind tunnel, and I'm right up to speed with where the team is."

Jordan are the only team still to finalise their line-up, with at least five drivers in contention for the two places.

The British pair of Ralph Firman, who drove for Jordan last season, and Justin Wilson are competing with McNish, Nick Heidfeld of Germany, Dutchman Jos Verstappen and possibly Spain's Marc Gene.

With the new testing regulations, it puts even more emphasis on an experienced driver Allan McNish

A crucial issue in the final selection could be the ability to attract major sponsorship to the team, with Heidfeld understood to have agreed a deal that is subject to the team finding such backing.

McNish would be unable to bring any sponsorship to the team, but Verstappen would reportedly bring in about �4m.

"Fortunately I have never been in the position of being asked for money from a team to drive and teams recognise what value I bring both on and off track," added McNish.

"At the moment I'm just concentrating on working things out with Jordan but I am in the very fortunate position of having a number of options open to me so we'll just have to see how things pan out."

McNish has been linked with a return to sportscars or Le Mans, both of which he won before joining Toyota - 10 years after he first tested a Formula One car.

Wilson's hopes of returning to Minardi all but ended on Wednesday when team boss Paul Stoddart offered his second seat to Zsolt Baumgartner as long as the Hungarian, who competed in two grands prix for Jordan last season, can come up with the necessary money.

That left Jordan as Wilson's only hope after losing his drive at Jaguar.

But team boss Eddie Jordan warned: "My main target is to get all the sponsorship I need and then decide on the drivers. Ideally sponsorship comes before the drivers, but obviously it would be difficult to consider Justin without some financial support."