Eddie Jordan obituary: F1's last rock 'n' roll team boss

Eddie Jordan, who has died aged 76, was among the last of a breed of Formula 1 team owner that no longer exists in the grand prix paddocks of today. The Irishman followed in a line of tradition that also included rival owner-team principals Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams and Ron Dennis – although Jordan’s colourful character and brash ‘rock ’n roll’ approach set him far apart from his contemporaries, before, during and after the 14 years Jordan Grand Prix both thrived and battled for survival as a popular F1 fixture.

Jordan beat the odds to rise from the junior single-seater categories and launch his team on to the F1 grid in 1991, in a blaze of green with the pretty and effective 7UP-backed 191. The hard work then began to stay in the game. Following the surprising and refreshing success generated in its first season, the Jordan team suffered an alarming drop in form in 1992 before it embarked on a gradual progression through the rest of the decade that briefly lifted it to the status of genuine frontrunner. But the peak was brief, and in the early years of the new millennium Jordan began a slide to eventual backmarker status that led to its eventual sale early in 2005.

Still, the F1 legacy Eddie Jordan created remains relevant and strong, if today it is also indirect in its influence. The team initially created at Silverstone regenerated through a string of guises beyond his ownership, from Midland to Spyker to Force India, and now thrives in vastly expanded form on the same site across the road from the home of the British GP – as the factory Aston Martin F1 team.

As for Jordan Grand Prix, it is remembered as the plucky underdog formed in the same irreverent, primary-coloured image of its extrovert founder, that for a time punched far above its less than substantial weight, and provided a breeding ground for a generation of F1 talent: from drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Eddie Irvine, Damon Hill, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frenzten, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella, to engineers and designers, marketeers and PRs.

The final record of achievement was respectable and far beyond other ambitious and short-lived F1 start-ups: four wins and 19 podiums, two pole positions and two fastest laps from 250 races, with a best constructors’ championship finish of third in 1999. Through it all, the team’s founder remained consistent as the archetypal F1 wheeler-dealer, with a theatrical touch that made his team a firm fan favourite.

Eddie Jordan’s initial view of motor sport came via the cockpit, as a racing driver. Born in Dublin on March 30, 1948, Jordan grew up a world away from the glamour of F1 paddocks, in Dartry, south of the capital city, and in Bray, County Wicklow. It is said that at the age of 15 he briefly considered the priesthood, but instead settled on the more worldly vocation of accountancy. His aunt, a nun, found him a job in the Irish Sisters of Charity Bank, where he worked as a clerk first in Mullingar and then in Dublin.

A bank strike in 1970 left him unable to earn, but Jordan found a new opportunity. He travelled to Jersey, where by day he worked for the Electricity Board and by night as a barman. It was while living in Jersey that he first tried a go-kart, at a seaside track, and upon his return to Ireland Jordan bought his own and began racing, progressing quickly to win the Irish Kart Championship in 1971.

The motor sport fire fully lit, Jordan then embarked on a graduation to Formula Ford, funding his racing by any means available. His ability to raise money through the unlikeliest of deals was already fully formed. Jordan persuaded a Dublin carpet shop to sponsor him – but the ‘payment’ for painting the shop’s name on the side of his car was in carpet remnants. On Saturdays when he wasn’t racing he’d set up a stall on Dublin’s Dandelion Green and flog his wares.

As 34 entries vied for 26 places on the F1 grid, Jordan was one of five teams forced into battle to pre-qualify on Friday mornings. Eddie would later claim the stress was such that it gave him piles. But incredibly, with points scores in three consecutive races – including a double in Canada — the team lifted itself out of the pre-qualifying jeopardy. Then at Spa, after its other driver Bertrand Gachot was jailed for an altercation with a London taxi driver, the team gave a young Mercedes sports car hopeful his F1 debut. Michael Schumacher only made one start for Jordan before he was controversially scooped out of Eddie’s grasp by Benetton, but the performance has gone down in F1 folklore. At season’s end, Jordan was classified a remarkable fifth in the constructors’ standings, ahead of Tyrrell, Lotus and Brabham.

But the achievement and its promise were quickly forgotten when a winding up order landed for non-payment of engine bills to Cosworth. Jordan narrowly avoided becoming a one-hit wonder, then agreed to a factory supply of Yamaha V12s for the second season. The engine proved woefully uncompetitive as reality crashed in. But a switch to V8s from independent tuner Brian Hart for 1993 allowed the team to regain some its lost momentum, and at Aida for the Pacific GP in 1994 rising star Barrichello landed the team its first podium finish. At the next round at Imola, Barrichello was lucky to escape with his life from a practice crash – a precursor to one of F1’s darkest weekends when both Roland Ratzenberger and then Ayrton Senna were killed.

In 2009, Jordan told Motor Sport that during this period he’d offered Senna half of his team, for free. “I reasoned that my 51% of a team which had Ayrton on board would be worth more than 100% of a team without him,” Eddie told Simon Taylor. “He’d be able to pull the team around him, concentrate on his ambitions, and with him we could raise the backing to put Jordan on a different level. Honda would have come with him for sure. I told him he didn’t even have to drive for us until we were ready to give him what he wanted.”

Instead, Jordan signed an engine supply deal with Peugeot which carried the team through the next three seasons. At the 1995 Canadian GP Barrichello and Irvine joined Jordan old boy Alesi – now at Ferrari – on the podium. At season’s end Eddie pulled off another lucrative deal by selling Irvine’s contract on to Ferrari, and landed major sponsorship from cigarette brand Benson & Hedges for 1996. Brundle’s barrel-rolling crash at the Australian GP season opener gained valuable column inches for B&H – but its initial gold livery was soon changed to a more TV-friendly vivid yellow.

The team continued to knock on the door in 1997, with Ralf Schumacher and Fisichella scoring enough to deliver Jordan its third fifth place in four seasons. But the following year Eddie finally hit gold, with a world champion in Damon Hill joining Schumacher and with power from Mugen-Honda engines. The combination finally broke Jordan’s duck at a dramatic rain-affected Belgian GP where Hill led Schumacher to a team 1-2.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen replaced Schumacher for 1999 and the German carried Jordan to its best-ever season. Frentzen won twice – with clever strategy at Magny-Cours and on merit at Monza — to spark brief talk of a title challenge. As it was, the team finished third in the constructors’ championship behind Ferrari and McLaren.

Thereafter, Jordan Grand Prix’s star slowly began to fade – although the team boss continued to deal and prosper. Eddie sold half his shares in the team to private equity firm Warburg Pincus, then bought them back for a tidy profit, and landed a supply of Honda engines for 2001. In 2002 Jordan scored more points than factory team BAR, but Honda then compensated Eddie for ending its contract for the following year.

Now Jordan fell back on Cosworth engines for the first time since 1991. At the 2003 Brazilian GP, good strategy and a well-timed race stoppage gifted Fisichella what turned out to be the team’s fourth and final GP victory. McLaren’s Kimi Räikkönen was originally declared the winner, only for a protest to succeed in handing the win to Fisichella.