Jordan Grand Prix's nightmare season continues to go from bad to worse and the weekend's events at Monaco only seem to have added fuel to an already raging conflagration.

Damon Hill's simmering frustration with his uncompetitive Jordan-Honda finally boiled over in the paddock after his nightmare drive to eighth place in Sunday's grand prix, while, yesterday, Eddie Jordan had to furiously deny that he is about jump ship and walk away from the team, pocketing a cool $50 million for the sale of the team he brought to F1 in 1991.

Hill, who has yet to score a single championship point since joining Jordan this season, told Eddie Jordan in no uncertain terms that the car was hopeless. Jordan responded with a robust statement absolving Hill and Ralf Schumacher of responsibility for the currently disastrous situation, effectively putting the blame on his own design department under technical director Gary Anderson.

The problems will be addressed at a crisis meeting of the Jordan team management this week. On the face of it, the only real answer looks like building a new car from scratch, but by the time design and development was complete the season would virtually be finished.

Hill has already admitted that the team has no chance of winning races this year with the current car.

"It was a pretty sorry end to a very, very difficult weekend," said Jordan. "The circuit here (at Monaco) is unique, but there are really no excuses for our performance. We need to do a lot of thinking and decide how to eradicate our problems."

Yesterday, Jordan was also having to defuse rumours that he is about to sell the team he founded on a shoestring.

Paddock gossip has insisted that the Dubliner is considering selling out to new engine suppliers Mugen-Honda or even American former grand prix team boss Walter Wolf, who is looking to buy back into F1. But Jordan was quick to deny the speculation.

"I am not giving up," he said. "I have heard the rumours and they are complete nonsense.

"This is my life and there is nothing else I would rather do. I have never even thought about quitting.

"It is difficult to be upbeat in circumstances like this, especially when you put your life and soul into it. We all do - the whole team of 150-odd people.

"But I am the team leader and I must try to give some encouragement because everyone needs to be motivated again. People are down and I have to pull them back up.

"One of the main objectives at the moment is make them believe in themselves again and I want people to know that their hard work will eventually pay off."

Resolving the team's problems will take every ounce of Jordan's tact and political savvy. Time and again he has professed his faith in technical director Anderson, who has designed all the team's cars since their Formula One debut in 1991. However, it is clear that the current Jordan 198 lacks sufficient aerodynamic downforce which leaves both drivers struggling for grip. The team faces an acute dilemma over sanctioning the construction of a new car. There is clearly little point in pursuing this option unless the technical department can produce a significant performance increment over the current machine. That evidence is not yet forthcoming.

A long-term option may be to bring an additional designer in to assist Anderson - Mike Gascoyne of Tyrrell is increasingly mentioned as a possible candidate - but that would be part of a longer-term strategy to rebuild the team's capability.

A short-term fix is what's required. The team's worst previous Formula One season was in 1992 when they scored just a single championship point using Yamaha engines. To judge by Hill's demeanour at Monaco, the ability to score a single point would be hailed as a major performance breakthrough for Jordan at the present time.