Eddie Jordan was one of Formula One’s most flamboyant figures, a gift-of-the gab Irishman with a million ideas most of which he would trot out in under a minute.
He was also an astute businessman, a risk-taker, a dabbler, an entrepreneur. From the time he came into Formula One in 1991 until close to his death yesterday he was a figure of irrepressible energy. In the end cancer got him, but he leaves behind a host of uproarious memories.
Rumours of his death seeped out in the Shanghai paddock, where his sporting family were gathering for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. The ill-tidings were not entirely unexpected after he announced last December that he was suffering from bladder and prostate cancer, which had spread to his spine.
Even a stronger course of drugs and his indomitable spirit could not save him. He was 76.
Jordan, whose fame was sustained as a maverick, opinionated television pundit, moved his eponymous team into F1 in 1991. That year he launched the top-flight career of Michael Schumacher at Spa (after Jordan’s regular driver Bertrand Gachot punched a London taxi driver) and helped the career of Martin Brundle, Johnny Herbert and Jean Alesi.
Damon Hill and Ralph Schumacher led Jordan to their best result – a one-two at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. They registered four wins.
Eddie Jordan has passed away at the age of 76 after a battle with bladder and prostate cancer
The astute businessman (pictured in 2002) established Jordan Racing in 1979, with the team spending 14 years in F1 between 1991 and 2005
Jordan gave seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher (right) his breakthrough at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1991
It was a helter-skelter team, always on the edge and fighting for finances. Jordan was finally forced to sell up in early 2005, Benson and Hedges sponsorship having being stubbed out by the Blair government’s anti-tobacco advertising bill. His old team was renamed Midland, on the Silverstone site now redeveloped by Aston Martin for £200m.
Born in Dublin, Edmund Patrick Jordan had a spell working at the Bank of Ireland, but was into motor racing from a young age, becoming Irish kart champion in 1971 before moving to Formula Ford in 1974.
He never made it as an elite driver and turned his attention to team management, establishing Jordan Racing in 1979, and working his way through the categories with his Formula One on his horizon.
Jordan was an ally of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s then supremo. They were two dealmakers who understood each other’s language.
A rock music enthusiast, Jordan played the drums in his band Eddie & The Robbers. During his heyday as team owner he would host boozy dinners, one of which ended with him and the man from the Daily Express wrestling on the floor, the former trying to pull off the best-disguised wig in sport.
Once here in Shanghai, he was told how you could pick imitation watches at AP Plaza in Pudong. He left the table to return an hour later with a big smile and a bagful of ‘Rolexes’.
He was a natural on TV, his enthusiasm and forthrightness, making up for any lack of grammatical exactitude. Presumably, with Ecclestone his source, he was first to moot the notion that Lewis Hamilton would leave McLaren for Mercedes.
After a spell on the BBC, he joined the Channel 4 team, having also briefly presented Top Gear.
Jordan’s irrepressible energy made him one of Formula One’s most flamboyant figures
He was known as one of, if not the, mavericks of the sport while in the F1 paddock
As an Irishman he was known to like his Guinness while he was also a Chelsea supporter
In his later years Jordan went into broadcasting and was known for his strong opinions
Jordan was an ally of Bernie Ecclestone (left) who was the F1 chief executive until 2017
Jordan leaves behind his wife of 42 years Marie (right) and their four children
In recent years he broadcast Formula for Success, a podcast with his close pal David Coulthard. His opinions were sometimes kind, sometimes hard, and he criticised as ‘suicidal’ Hamilton’s move to Ferrari.
He also recently led a consortium that bought London Irish rugby club and engineered his last great pay day after emerging, to gasps of astonishment from the Formula One community, as Adrian Newey’s manager.
He negotiated the genius engineer’s £20m-a-year transfer from Red Bull to Aston Martin late last year.
He leaves wife Marie, four children, and plenty of smiles in the sadness.
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