Wheeler, dealer, maverick racing entrepreneur, wannabe rock star but most importantly a grand prix-winning Formula One constructor who almost led his swashbuckling team to championship glory, Eddie Jordan, who has died at the age of 76, was one of the most flamboyant team bosses in the history of the sport.
In the current era of Formula One, driven commercially by a US entertainment conglomerate, populated by automotive giants and bound by corporate responsibility and shareholder prudence, it’s hard to imagine how a character such as “EJ” would thrive, but the racing world in which the Dubliner carved out his extraordinary career was very different.
[ Eddie Jordan, former Formula One team owner, dies aged 76Opens in new window ]
[ Eddie Jordan: A life in picturesOpens in new window ]
When Jordan arrived at motorsport’s pinnacle it was a freer, wilder time, dominated by force-of-nature owner-operators such as Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and, at the very top, by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. For Jordan, whose progress to that point had been defined by an ability to talk the talk, even if he couldn’t quite match the walk, it was the perfect platform.
Born in Dublin in 1948, Jordan’s early career was far removed from the glamour of the F1 paddock and after leaving school he trained as an accountant, eventually going to work at the Bank of Ireland. However, when a strike left him out of work and out of pocket he made his way to Jersey, where he first encountered motorsport, racing go-karts at a seaside track.
Returning home he bought his own kart and began racing in earnest. The following year he won the Irish Kart Championship and progressed to Formula Ford, selling carpet remnants in Dublin’s Dandelion Market to finance his racing. A move to England followed, to race in Formula Three, at the age of 31.
In the ultra-competitive hothouse of British motorsport, Jordan’s racing career rapidly stalled and, realising that his time behind the wheel was coming to an end, he established Eddie Jordan Racing in 1981 to compete in British F3.
Running hopefuls such as gifted Irish driver Tommy Byrne, future F1 and TV star Martin Brundle, Jordan turned his team into a junior series powerhouse and later, with another future F1 driver and pundit, Johnny Herbert, Jordan elevated the operation to the level F3000, a category then operating at the rung below F1 and a strong feeder for the top tier.
The only way was up and after parlaying the signing of Jean Alesi into a hefty pay-day when the French driver transferred to the Tyrrell F1 team, Jordan began plotting to take his tiny team to the top.
These were the days when a team could still turn up to a grand prix armed with brash self-belief, a hastily assembled chassis and a Cosworth V8 engine. Credit to the Irish squad, then, for turning up to its maiden grand prix with the beautiful Gary Anderson-designed 191. Even more plaudits were due when, after prequalifying sent many fellow hopefuls trudging home, Belgian driver Bertrand Gachot qualified the Jordan 14th out of 26 cars and raced it to 10th before an engine issue halted him.
Fuelled by bravado, a sponsorship deal with 7Up, and the sandwiches made for the team and its guests by his wife Marie, Jordan was on his way. In Canada, the team scored its first points, with Andrea de Cesario fourth and Gachot fifth, and more followed in Mexico, France and Germany. In the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix, however, Gachot was jailed for punching a London taxi driver and Jordan’s knack for talent spotting once again came to the fore – as he handed a little known Mercedes sports car driver his F1 debut.
Michael Schumacher stunned the F1 paddock by qualifying seventh and although he didn’t finish the race, a battle to hold on to the new star ensued, with Jordan losing out to another of the F1 paddock’s apex predators, Flavio Briatore. In trademark style, however, Jordan would have the last laugh, later saying that when Ralf Schumacher wanted to leave Jordan at the end of 1998, Michael was forced to pay Jordan $2 million to buy out his brother’s contract.
The success of 1991 and the funds extracted from Mercedes and Briatore’s Benetton team for the privilege of taking Schumacher gave Jordan the platform to build. Over the following years he spun driver deals and wrangled sponsorship contracts with manic glee as the team continued its ascent.
That apogee coincided with the period of its greatest wealth. Funds secured through Eddie Irvine’s transfer to Ferrari and via a sponsorship deal with tobacco company Benson & Hedges allowed the team to invest heavily, and on a soaking wet Sunday in August 1998 Jordan finally did the impossible, as former world champion Damon Hill sailed through incidents and accidents to take an emotional first victory.
The following season was even more spectacular as new driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored a brace of wins, in France and Italy, to put himself in a with a slim chance of Drivers’ championship glory with three rounds to go. The German led the race at the Nürburgring for 32 sodden laps but eventually retired from the race with a technical issue and the title chance evaporated. The team’s third place in the Constructors’ Championship that year remains it high watermark.
The combination of on-track success, sponsorship money and Jordan’s larger-than-life character also fuelled the team’s reputation as a hard-partying home of hedonism. Scantily-clad glamour models were garage regulars, rock stars and celebrities courted the team owner’s attention – and Jordan, bewigged, flamboyantly dressed and never short of an opinion, lapped up the attention. A keen amateur drummer, he formed a band, Eddie and the Robbers, in a nod to his piratical reputation, and frequently played at his own team parties as well as at races and music festivals.
[ Eddie Jordan: A life in picturesOpens in new window ]
But while there was success on track and fun off it, behind the scenes Jordan was struggling to keep the commercial plates spinning. A bid for works Honda engines failed, Benson & Hedges steadily withdrew, a potential sponsorship deal with Vodafone ended in rancour and in court, and the days of Page 3 models draped across its cars at multimillion dollar launches at London’s Drury Lane Theatre and mooring yachts named The Snapper in Monaco harbour drew to a close.
By 2004, the team was in trouble and in early 2005 Jordan at last threw in the towel, selling to the Midland Group. Jordan’s team still lives on however, transforming into Spyker, Force India and Racing Point, and it now races as Aston Martin.
Jordan’s love affairs with motorsport and the business of sport weren’t over, however, and in the year after the end of Jordan Grand Prix, he segued into a career as an outspoken TV pundit. Thus he began mixing fanciful theorising with a genuine nose for unearthing exclusives and business deals, including buying into Celtic football club and most recently heading a consortium alongside son Kyle, that bought out the London Irish rugby club. It is estimated that over his career Jordan amassed a net worth of €550 million. His wheeler-dealer instincts were to the fore right to the end as he was called in last year by legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey to broker his release from Red Bull to join Aston Martin.
Last year, however, Jordan’s pace was slowed. He was diagnosed with prostate and bladder cancer and in December revealed it had spread to his spine and pelvis. After 250 grands prix, countless business and racing adventures and after a life lived with all the thunderous speed and furious excitement of one of his racing cars, Eddie Jordan, motorsport legend, left us. The world of racing just got a little bit less rock ‘n’ roll.
Justin Hynes has worked as a writer and media consultant in the F1 paddock for more than two decades and covered Jordan Grand Prix for the Irish Times during the team’s golden years.
