Eddie Jordan, who has died aged 76, was one of the most charismatic, cheerful yet toughest Formula 1 team principals of his time. Motorsport Week takes a look back at his life and career.
It was Monza, 1991. Jordan’s eponymous F1 team was in its first season of competing in the world’s biggest motorsport. He arrived in Italy under a cloud of confusion and disappointment, as he fought to cling on to his new driver, one Michael Schumacher. The German had made his debut at the previous round in Belgium, and stunned everyone with a seventh-place qualifying result, and even reached fifth before retiring at the top of the hill after Eau Rouge on the first lap, but his rising star status was already rubber-stamped.
So much so, that Benetton boss Flavio Briatore made an audacious attempt to lure Schumacher to his team, and successfully did so. Legal wrangling ensued, and a furious Jordan was resigned to losing his new young talent via a legally complex yet sinister coup.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis smiled at Jordan, and proclaimed: “Welcome to the piranha club.”
The club in question was the name given to the pack of team bosses and F1’s supremo promoter, Bernie Ecclestone. It may have been rough, tough and dog-eat-dog, but Jordan, with his Irish background and strong personality, would have always been prepared for a fight.
From Dublin to Le Mans – Eddie Jordan’s beginnings in racing
Born in Dublin on March 30 1948, Jordan resisted his family’s suggestion of becoming a dentist, and after also briefly entertaining the idea of entering the priesthood and being a bank clerk, he chose an entirely different career path.
Irish Kart Champion at the first attempt in 1971, Jordan was in Formula Ford just three years later, and then Formula 3 a year after that, but a horrific leg-breaking accident at Mallory Park enforced a year’s sabbatical.
After stints in the Irish Formula Atlantic series and British Formula 3, Jordan even went as high as Formula 2 and tested a McLaren F1 car.
Alongside British driver David Hobbs and David O’Rourke – manager of rock band Pink Floyd – Jordan entered the 1981 Le Mans 24 Hours, driving a BMW M1, which agonisingly retired two hours from the end. By this time, Jordan was already a team owner and gave up racing himself to shift his full attention onto helping a new breed of drivers, many of whom would wind up in F1.
Tackling Senna en route to F1
Eddie Jordan Racing’s first chunk of notoriety perhaps came in 1983, when, whilst also running a European F3 team, his British F3 team was fighting at the front, with its driver Martin Brundle going toe-to-toe with a Brazilian upstart called Ayrton Senna.
In the 20-race championship, only one was won by a driver that was neither Senna nor Brundle, who duly went into the final round at Thruxton seeking the title. Senna dominated and won by 10 points, but the battle lived so long in the memory, that it surely helped secure Jordan’s team with a reputation as one of the ones to be part of.
Four years later, Jordan’s team did win the title via British sensation Johnny Herbert. Reputed to be one of the greatest talents of his era, Herbert and Jordan made their way up to Formula 3000 [now F2] – the premier feeder series to F1. With both men perhaps sensing the pinnacle of motor racing was around the corner, Herbert’s title dream came to a shuddering halt at Brands Hatch with a crash that left him with shattered feet, almost requiring amputation.
Whilst Herbert managed to work his way into F1 for the next year, Jordan remained in F3000. The team dominated the campaign and won the title thanks to its exciting French-Sicilian prospect, Jean Alesi. He too, like Herbert and his team-mate Martin Donnelly, was in F1 straightaway, but Jordan’s time of having his own team in the big-time was nearing ever closer.
Pre-qualifying, gassing cabbies and losing Schumacher – Jordan’s eventful first year
Jordan Grand Prix was launched in 1991, and, like all new and/or struggling teams at that time, arrived in Phoenix for Round 1 needing to ‘pre-qualify’, setting a time deemed fast enough to make it into regular qualifying for the race.
The car – the 191 – immediately made an impression with its green-and-blue livery, backed by a lead sponsor in soft drinks brand 7 Up, and is still today ranked in polls as one of the best-looking F1 cars of all time.
Belgian Bertrand Gachot and gaffe-prone Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris were chosen for the task, and Gachot made it into the race on the tight, dusty street circuit, eventually finishing 10th. Whilst the team initially struggled for pace, Jordan did not need to wait long for points to come, and they did so in a pair, with de Cesaris and Gachot coming home fourth and fifth in the fifth round in Canada.
Perhaps its biggest challenge came before Gachot’s home race, when he was jailed for spraying CS gas in the face of a London taxi driver, earning him a short stint in prison. This was how Jordan unearthed the rising sportscar driver Schumacher and quickly lost him to Briatore. Ever the tough and uncompromising dealer looking to get a bargain, Jordan signed up Roberto Moreno, who was ousted by Schumacher in the Benetton team, effectively sealing a straight swap.
The team ended 1991 an astonishing fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with a haul of 12 points, placing it above longstanding teams such as Tyrrell, Lotus and Brabham.
The ’90s – Jordan become the rock n roll F1 team
1992 and ’93 were tough years for Eddie Jordan, regressing in terms of performance, and managing a meagre four points across both seasons.
1994, however, saw a second breakthrough, with the help of two drivers Jordan helped to bring through the ranks.
Rubens Barrichello, who made his debut the year before, and Eddie Irvine, who was promoted after a late cameo alongside him, were tasked with helping the team regain its momentum, with the help of Brian Hart’s V10 engines. At the second round – the Pacific Grand Prix – Barrichello took his, and the team’s, first podium, with third.
The next round saw Barrichello suffer a horrific accident at Imola, the first in the chain that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and his old adversary Senna. The team performed well over the year, with Barrichello nabbing a rain-assisted pole position at Spa.
1995 saw a similar vein of form, this time through Peugeot engines, with Barrichello and Irvine securing a double-podium in Canada, alongside winner Alesi, which made Jordan feel it was, in a sentimental way, a Jordan 1-2-3.
1996 saw Irvine jump ship to Ferrari, and Barrichello partnered with Brundle, reuniting with Jordan after 13 years. Another fifth place in the Constructors’ followed, with 1997 taking on a new look which became synonymous with the team.
Title sponsor Benson & Hedges enabled Jordan to unveil a yellow livery, also boasting a new line-up in rising stars Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher, and despite the pair clashing at Round 3 in Argentina, Schumacher took third, with Fisichella taking third and second in Canada and Belgium.
1998 brought a new set of twists and turns, replacing Benetton-bound Fisichella with 1996 World Champion Damon Hill. The team suffered a horrific start to the year, scoring no points until Round 9 at Silverstone via Schumacher, but then, a total 180 saw Jordan enjoy perhaps his greatest day.
Hill got off the board in Germany, and then Hungary, before the team arrived in Belgium for Round 13.
Qualifying third, Hill upset Jordan by refusing to partake in sponsorship commitments, telling him he needed to work into the night with the team to help secure a good result on race day, a decision that was, via some fortune, vindicated. In torrential Ardennes rain, a multi-car pileup at the start was avoided by both drivers, and Hill claimed the lead at Turn 1 on the restart but was quickly dispatched by Schumacher Sr’s charging Ferrari.
But, after ploughing into the back of David Coulthard’s McLaren, Schumacher was out and Hill was in the lead. Hill, aware that Ralf was catching him, told the team over the radio that a team order would guarantee a 1-2 finish.
Jordan quickly made the order, and together, the two cars skated across the line to take that one-two, with a jubilant Jordan almost skipping down the pit lane and onto the podium as a winning constructor for the first time.
Title challengers to selling out
Jordan signed Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1999 and together, the German came as close as the team ever did to the championship. Had he not retired at the Nurburgring, Frentzen would have likely won the race, putting him a point within the top with just two rounds to go.
It never got as good for the team again after that, with Jordan firing Frentzen in mid-2001, and replacing him with Alesi, in another reunion between boss and driver.
Jordan’s final moment in the sun again came, ironically, in the rain, with Fisichella – now back at the team – taking a contentious victory in Brazil, which was eventually claimed through the FIA courts in Paris after a timekeeping error initially denied the Italian the win.
The team suffering financial strife, Jordan reluctantly sold the team to the Midland Group for $60 million, eventually becoming Midland F1 Racing. Midland made way for Spyker, Force India then Racing Point, and now, Aston Martin, still operating at Silverstone like Jordan did.
Jordan the man – drummer, media pundit, podcaster and the fountain of knowledge
Jordan became a TV pundit with the BBC in 2009, and quickly developed a reputation for being the man with the inside knowledge on all things F1.
He was the first to break the news that Schumacher would return to F1 with Mercedes for 2010, and told the world that Lewis Hamilton would replace him for 2013.
Always known as a man to have fun and with strings to his bow, Jordan had many extracurricular hobbies, such as playing the drums in various bands, and often playing with other driver musicians at a post-British Grand Prix concert at Silverstone.
In recent years, Jordan began his own podcast entitled Formula For Success, alongside fellow pundit Coulthard. Interviewing a plethora of drivers from their respective time in the sport, the show was often humourous and light-hearted in nature and grew a considerable following.
Known to be a man who knew how to secure a good deal, Jordan’s final crowning glory was his role in helping one of F1’s greatest technical gurus make a big money move. Jordan managed Adrian Newey in his negotiations to leave Red Bull and join Aston Martin, helping him secure a move to the team that operates on the same site on which Jordan Grand Prix opened its doors 34 years ago.
Jordan is survived by Marie, and their four children, Zoe, Miki, Zak and Kyle.
READ MORE: Tributes pour in following tragic passing of F1 legend Eddie Jordan
