Obituary: Eddie Jordan, the flamboyant deal-maker of Formula 1

BBC News

20-03-2025

Eddie Jordan, who has died aged 76, was one of the most flamboyant Formula 1 team bosses in the sport's history.Rising to wealth and notoriety at a time when motorsport was a kind of Wild West featuring many chancers and deal-makers, Jordan's outspoken, over-the-top personality stood out.He was a rogue who was sometimes loveable, sometimes dodgy, and occasionally both at the same time.Jordan's arrival in a location would commonly be marked by hearing a Dublin accent yelling across a crowd at someone, launching an expletive-laden rant full of insults, backed by a smile. The worse it sounded, the more it was an indication of his respect for the recipient.In his early days, he sold salmon out of the back of a van in the Irish capital. The fast, witty sales talk he mastered there stood him in good stead throughout a motor racing career that had its share of success but was all too often a struggle to survive.Many are the people whom Jordan betrayed along the way. But somehow his character flaws were largely indulged, and he was generally regarded with affection.Even when behaving badly, he had a warmth and humour that made it hard not to like him - although very few would have completely trusted him.
Drummer, bank clerk, kart champion, team owner
There was also a rock'n'roll aspect to his character. He played the drums in a band and had many associates in the music industry including John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd, and Boyzone's Shane Lynch.He founded a Formula 1 team out of nothing, built it to win races, and even in one heady year challenged for the championship. But he could not survive for long in the rarefied air at the summit of the sport, and the team sank even quicker than it rose.Of course, when it was on its last legs and he sold it on, he made himself a fortune. He was always a canny businessman with an eye for a deal.Perhaps that is what attracted the eye of Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial boss throughout Jordan's career. Ecclestone, a former second-hand car dealer, recognised a kindred spirit and was a kind of guardian angel at times as Jordan navigated the choppy waters of being a privateer team owner.Jordan first encountered motor racing on Guernsey, where he spent the summer of 1970 when a banking strike in Dublin meant he could not work in his job as a clerk. On his return to Ireland, he bought a kart, and won the Irish championship at his first attempt in 1971.He moved up into motor racing in 1974, first into Formula Ford and then Formula 3, only to suffer a nasty accident at Mallory Park in 1976 and badly break a leg.In hospital, his hair fell out. On seeing this, his mother Eileen - by all accounts, a formidable woman - procured him a wig, and demanded he wear it.He never appeared without one again. Although there was the odd time in the early days when future grand prix driver Gerhard Berger, a renowned practical joker, would sneak up behind Jordan with a high-pressure air line, and blow the hairpiece off his head.Jordan resumed his career, but by 1979 he was struggling to find money to pursue it, and he turned to team ownership.
'Welcome to the Piranha Club'
Eddie Jordan Racing achieved considerable success in F3 and F3000 through the 1980s. And he helped launch the career of many top-level drivers including Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert, Jean Alesi, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill.By the end of the decade, he had his sights on F1. He hired engineer Gary Anderson to create the car, and he and his small team produced the Jordan 191, an elegant design now regarded as one of the most beautiful grand prix cars in history.Despite having two journeyman drivers in Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian novice Bertrand Gachot, the team immediately punched above their weight with a series of eye-catching performances. But the defining moment of the year came at the Belgian Grand Prix.Jordan needed a replacement for Gachot, who had been sent to jail in the UK for using CS gas in an altercation with a London taxi driver. Mercedes offered him £150,000 to field their protege Michael Schumacher. The German was an immediate sensation.Spa-Francorchamps is regarded as one of the world's most demanding circuits, and Schumacher had never driven around it before. Yet he qualified the car seventh - four places and more than 0.7 seconds ahead of De Cesaris.A clutch failure on the first lap caused Schumacher's retirement, but Jordan left Spa optimistic about what could be for his team with this brilliant young driver in the cockpit.
The problem was, Jordan had not tied down Schumacher properly, and the rival Benetton team swooped, with a little help from Ecclestone - who knew about Jordan's financial difficulties as they navigated their first season, and wanted this obvious new star in a more successful, stable and secure environment.By the next race, the Italian Grand Prix, Schumacher was a Benetton driver. McLaren boss Ron Dennis sympathised, after a fashion, with Jordan, saying to him: "Welcome to the Piranha Club." The phrase has entered the lexicon, so perfect is it in summing up the ruthlessness of the F1 business environment.In desperate need of a cash injection, Jordan switched from his off-the-shelf Cosworth engine to a factory deal with Yamaha for its V12 for 1992.But the engine was heavy, thirsty and unreliable, and a difficult season followed before Jordan ditched the Yamaha for a privateer Hart engine.Rubens Barrichello became a fixture in the cockpit, as the Brazilian brought a handy budget along with his obvious talent. For 1994, he was joined by Northern Ireland's Irvine, who had made a headline-grabbing debut in Japan at the end of 1993.Irvine's outspoken, insouciant character fitted well with the team. In Suzuka, he had un-lapped himself on race leader Ayrton Senna's McLaren while the pair battled HIll's Williams in the wet.And Irvine's lippy dismissiveness when confronted by Senna complaining about the incident after the race led the three-time champion to punch him.
When Jordan were in title contention
Jordan earned himself a tidy packet by selling Irvine to Ferrari to join Schumacher at the end of 1995, and soon a series of dominoes started to fall that made Jordan major contenders for a while.Jordan had taken works Peugeot engines for 1995 when they were cast off by McLaren after just one season. That helped them attract a major title sponsorship from tobacco company Benson & Hedges. Funding changed from being desperately sought to something that could be used for investment.For 1997, Jordan wanted Hill, after he was dumped by Williams despite winning the world title at the end of 1996. Hill demurred, and made the error of joining Arrows instead.But he did sign for 1998, replacing Giancarlo Fisichella as the team-mate of Ralf Schumacher, younger brother of Michael, with whom Hill had fought tense title battles in 1994 and 1995.Along with Hill, Jordan had also secured a supply of Mugen Honda engines, more powerful and reliable than the Peugeots, and the services of highly regarded designer Mike Gascoyne.After a disappointing start, Anderson left mid-season, and the team began to gain in competitiveness.
At a wet Belgian Grand Prix, after Michael Schumacher crashed out in his Ferrari after colliding with David Coulthard's McLaren, the Jordan drivers found themselves running one-two, Hill in the lead. Jordan avoided a potential on-track drama by telling them to hold position, but created an off-track one.The decision led to a visit from an unhappy Michael Schumacher to tell Jordan he had been unfair not to let his brother race for the win - ironic, considering the German's status as Ferrari's number one.For 1999, Ralf Schumacher was tempted away by Williams, and their driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen went the other way. It became Jordan's most successful season.As Hill faded into uncompetitiveness, Frentzen won two races and emerged as an unlikely title contender, but a bizarre retirement when leading the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring ended their hopes.The team had found a clever - and dubious - way to use anti-stall as launch control. But Frentzen forgot to turn off the system as he left the pits from his stop for fuel and tyres, and that triggered a safety system that cut the engine. Jordan were never to be so competitive again.
How Jordan made one last big deal
Over the succeeding years, Anderson rejoined, drivers came and went, there were fights over engine supply, and the money began to dry up. But there was one more win - for Fisichella in the chaotically wet Brazilian Grand Prix of 2003.McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was declared the winner after a massive crash brought the race to a halt, but the officials had missed that Fischella had actually been leading at the crucial point - and the trophy was handed over at a ceremony at the following race in Imola.Financial troubles worsened in 2004 and late in the year Ecclestone introduced Jordan to the Canadian businessman Alex Shnaider. Six weeks later, in January 2005, the team was sold for $60m.The deal made Jordan secure for life, but on the day he signed it he was in tears in the office of commercial director Ian Phillips, who had been with the team from the start.Four years later, Jordan was back on the scene as an outspoken television pundit for BBC Sport, after the corporation won back the rights to F1, and he developed a reputation for being involved in breaking big stories.These included Michael Schumacher's return to F1 with Mercedes in 2010, and that Lewis Hamilton was bound for the same team for 2013. In truth, the Hamilton story was more collaborative than was admitted, to protect sources, and Jordan's involvement was not as singular as was presented at the time.He stayed on board as coverage switched to Channel 4 from 2016, albeit appearing with decreasing regularity. But, deal-maker as ever, Jordan was always working behind the scenes, and in 2024 he pulled his last master deal.Now acting as the manager of his friend Adrian Newey, Jordan negotiated an exit from Red Bull for F1's greatest ever designer, and a five-year deal with Aston Martin for a salary that could reach £30m with add-ons and bonuses.The irony was unmissable - Aston Martin is the latest iteration of the team Jordan had founded. It had passed through various name changes and owners to end up with the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who has built a new factory on the site Jordan had used since 1991.Not long after the Newey deal was sealed, Jordan revealed in December 2024 that he was being treated for aggressive prostate cancer, though that did not stop him heading a consortium which bought London Irish rugby club in early 2025.He is survived by his wife Marie, and their four children, Zoe, Miki, Zak and Kyle.