One man, a thousand dreams: if we had to remember Eddie Jordan with one word, probably the best would be ‘dreamer’. He loved motorsport and had understood from an early age that he would be a part of it in one way or another. He started racing when he was about eighteen years old in minor championships such as Formula Ford and Formula 3, although the real turning point came in 1979 when he decided to create a real team.
Eddie Jordan Racing officially took shape in 1981, first participating in a few events around the UK and then moving up to domestic Formula 3, where it won the title in ‘87. In the following years, Jordan's team participated in the European Formula 3000 Championship, where they won the title in 1988 thanks to the Donnelly-Herbert duo and in 1989 with Jean Alesi. In 1989, he hired Reynard's chief designer, Gary Anderson, who became Donnelly's track engineer and later the team's chief designer.
Debut in the bigs with Schumacher at the wheel
Jordan Racing entered the F1 World Championship competition in 1991. It debuted with a car built by Anderson. During the course of the season the team quickly gained consideration and showed its qualities on several occasions. For the Belgian GP Jordan was called upon to replace its driver and Bertrand Gachot, handing over the wheel to Michael Schumacher.
It was the German driver's first race in the top category, but despite this being his first time on the difficult Belgian circuit, he surprised everyone by qualifying in seventh place. The weekend's excellent performance attracted the attention of Flavio Briatore, then director of Benetton, who offered him a contract for the next season.
In search of the title
For years Jordan tried to win the coveted world title, but without success: it was only in 1999 that he found himself at the top of the challenge, but the title did not come, stopping only in third place. With the excellent performances of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher, the team achieved two victories during that season: one with Frentzen at the French Grand Prix and one with Schumacher junior at the San Marino Grand Prix.
But this prosperous period did not last long: the arrival of the year 2000 things began to get complicated for the Irishman's team, due to a major crisis.
Honda's farewell and the beginning of the storm
Here we come to 2002: Eddie lost a partnership agreement with the Honda engine, in favour of the BAR team instead. Added to this were the numerous difficulties within the team (including a quarrel with Frentzen, which led to the German's dismissal), which forced the Irish manager to switch to the expensive Cosworth engines. Subsequently, the main sponsor abandoned the team and, with a budget of less than 80 million, many cuts had to be made, including in the technical staff, which was considerably reduced.
That season presented itself as difficult and demanding. Despite this, Jordan achieved an improbable victory in Brazil with Giancarlo Fisichella, which would be the last victory for the Jordan team. He managed to retain complete ownership of his team until 2004 when he retired, selling the team to Russian-Canadian entrepreneur Alex Shnaider's Midland F1 group. During the team's last race, he said that his team had actually achieved five successes: the fifth victory was their survival with such small funds until that championship.
2024: the announcement of illness and Aston Martin's gift
After retiring from F1, Jordan switched from the role of manager to commentator for BBC Sport in 2009, where he met David Coulthard, with whom he struck up a close friendship outside of racing and created the ‘Formula For Success’ podcast in 2023. In December 2024 he made public his fight against cancer, a disease he had been battling with for some time, leaving fans with a strong message of awareness about prevention.
The memory of the Aston Martin team was touching: after Newey's arrival at the British team was made official, Eddie Jordan was invited to visit the new base, located next to the original Jordan GP site; he was able to see the team and had an emotional meeting with the guys he used to work with and who still work there just a few steps away from that Irish dream.
Although he never managed to win a world championship, we will remember Eddie Jordan for scouting drivers who made F1 history such as the Schumacher brothers, Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine; we will remember his eccentric personality and his brightly coloured single-seaters because you know, dreamers at heart, never die.
Main cover photo www.dailymail.co.uk
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