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Team Jordan: Formula 1, 1991 to 2004

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Who?

Bertrand Gachot

What?

Jordan-Ford 191

Where?

Paul Ricard

When?

Early 1991, pre-season testing
Why?

The most beautiful car of the nineties, still in its virginal state - if an all-black car can be called virginal, that is. But whereas most racing cars get uglier once they have had their livery put on, the Jordan became even prettier. As is commonly accepted Jordan's first-season 7-Up paintjob is among the best of the sponsored era. And what's more, the Jordan team's entrance into the Grand Prix realm was as successful as Williams Grand Prix Engineering's 1978 debut - so it's sad to see the Jordan team whither away and change ownership in such unceremonious manner as has happened in the winter of 2004-'05.

1. Jordan's F3000 roots

Eddie Jordan Racing (EJR), formed in 1980, by Eddie Jordan, an Irish ex-driver (British Formula 3 in 1979), started his team-management career with running cars in British and European Formula 3 Championships. When in 1985, the FIA replaced the European F2 and F3 Championships with the International F3000 series, using 3-litre engined cars with rev-limiters, EJR was one of the fourteen teams taking part in the new series, whose points system would be the same as in F1 then, with 9 points to the race winner and 6-4-3-2-1 to the next five drivers in each race.

The start in 1985 was modest with EJR fielding only one car - the No.25 March-Cosworth 85B - for 26 year-old Belgian, Thierry Tassin. Tassin drove in only six of the eleven races in 1985, but scored Team EJR’s first point with a sixth place finish at the Osterreichring on 17th August, in the tenth race of the season. Four retirements and an eighth place completed the EJR debut in F3000’s inaugural season.

The years 1986 and 1987 were washouts for EJR with the team unable to score a single point, despite fielding two cars in 1986- the No.21 and No.22 March-Cosworth 86Bs - and one car in 1987 – the No.20 March-Cosworth 87B, driven by Swede Tomas Kaiser. But 1987 saw success for EJR in British F3, with Johnny Herbert clinching the 1987 title, after near misses in 1983 (EJR's Martin Brundle finishing second to Ayrton Senna), 1984 (EJR's Canadian Allen Berg second to the English peer driving as a commoner, Johnny Dumfries), and 1986 (EJR's Brazilian Sandro Sala second behind Andy Wallace).

EJR shifted to the Reynard-Smith Cosworth 88Ds for the 1988 season of F3000 and fielded the reigning British F3 Champion, Johnny Herbert in the No.31 car and Swede Thomas Danielsson in the No.30 car. And at Jerez (17th April) in the first race of 1988, Johnny Herbert gave EJR its first win in F3000 with a commanding pole position to chequered flag win. And later in the season, Brit Martin Donnelly, who had just taken over the No.30 car from Danielsson (races 1-5) and Alessandro Santin (race 6) romped to a win at the accident-packed seventh race at Brands Hatch, which ended Johnny Herbert’s 1988 season. For good measure, Donnelly won the last race at Dijon to set the seal on a successful season for EJR, with three wins and a runner-up spot in the team standings behind Bromley Motorsports, also British, also unheralded, and who had captured the Drivers’ Championship with Brazilian Roberto Moreno.

1989 was a crucial year with Formula 1 moving to the non-turbo age, and effectively for 1989, the same 3-litre engines as F3000, but without the rev-limiters of the latter. In 1989, Mugen-Honda made their F3000 debut, using as spearheads EJR and DAMS, two of the teams in F3000, the former chassised by the Reynard 89D and the latter by the Lola T89/50. The EJR drivers for 1989 were Jean Alesi, already 25 and in his second year in F3000, and Martin Donnelly. Alesi, the French F3 champion of 1987, would go on to capture the F3000 title with wins at Pau (3rd race), Birmingham (7th race) and Spa-Francorchamps (8th race), clinching the title at the penultimate race at Le Mans, with the last race at Dijon to spare.

But the extra-ordinary bridging of F1 and F3000 took place at the Paul Ricard on July 9th, the venue of the French Formula 1 GP (the seventh of sixteen races) of 1989, when three of the regular F3000 drivers of 1989 made their F1 debut, Alesi driving the No.4 Tyrrell-Cosworth 018, Donnelly in the No.9 Arrows-Judd A11 and Eric Bernard in the No.29 (Larousse) Lola-Lamborghini LC89. Qualifying saw Alesi 16th, Donnelly 14th and Bernard 15th on the starting grid of 26 cars, after the weeding out of four cars each at the pre-qualifying and the qualifying stages. Alesi would finish fourth on his F1 debut, a little more than a minute behind race winner, Alain Prost, in his McLaren MP4/5 Honda.

Bernard and Donnelly would finish 11th and 12th in the race, 3 laps behind, but proving to all the teams in the F1 paddock that F3000 drivers could deliver in F1 if only given a drive. Alesi would drive in seven of the remaining nine F1 races of 1989, while continuing with his regular F3000 schedule, and finish eventually 9th in the F1 World Championship standings of 1989 with eight points to his name, despite driving only half the races on the F1 calendar. He gave two F1 races a miss, in favour of his F3000 title-chase, Spa-Francorchamps and Estoril, thus turning the established order of events upside-down.

For F3000 teams watching the topsy-turvy happen, 1989 would act as the spur to enter F1 and win laurels at the pinnacle, rather than in the feeder series, the role envisaged for the F3000 series at launch in 1985. And Eddie Jordan, whose F3000 drivers had been in the forefront of the action in the F1 field, would spend another two years in F3000 though he would make the plunge into F1 in the second year, 1991.

2. 1991: A solid F1 debut amidst failing teams

Team Jordan Grand Prix would make their F1 debut in 1991. It was a turbulent period in F1 as far as the smaller teams were concerned, many entering and then unable to find viability, selling out or exiting. 1989 had seen the exit of Zakspeed and Rial, 1990 the end of Eurobrun, Onyx and Life. Jordan would make their F1 debut along with the Modena team, a last-minute patchwork from the mess of the GLAS disappearance. The turbulence of the period can be gauged from the table below:

Sl no

F1 teams

Entered (year)

Last F1 year

Sl no

F1 teams

Entered (year)

Last F1 year

Sl no

F1 teams

Entered (year)

Last F1 year

1

Osella /Fondmetal

1980

1992

7

Rial

1988

1989

13

Andrea Moda

1992

1992

2

Zakspeed

1985

1989

8

Scuderia Italia

1988

1993

14

Simtek

1994

1995

3

AGS

1986

1991

9

Eurobrun

1988

1990

15

Pacific

1994

1995

4

Coloni

1987

1991

10

Onyx

1989

1990

16

Forti Corse

1995

1996

5

March/Leyton House

1987

1992

11

Life

1990

1990

17

Lola

1997

1997

6

Larrousse

1987

1994

12

Modena Team

1991

1991














A) The F1 World 1991: A new points system with 10 points awarded to a race winner instead of 9 (the second to sixth placed drivers would be entitled to 6-4-3-2-1 points), and all the races counting to the World Championship instead of only eleven, would be the only changes from 1990. The 3.5-litre normally aspirated formula, introduced in 1990, was still in vogue. Pre-qualifying would continue in 1991, with 34 cars and 18 teams in the entry list. The domination of the McLaren-Hondas would continue in 1991, but the emerging power, Williams-Renault, would run them close.

B) Team Jordan 1991: For the first eight races of their debut season, Jordan was part of the pre-qualifying shootout, which would see only four of the eight cars reach the qualifying stage.

The prequalifying teams of 1991:

Jordan would have a nasty shock at Phoenix on March 8th, the first race of the season, when Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris would fail to get past the pre-qualifying shootout, but that would be the only time it would happen. Thereafter, qualifying for a race became a formality for the team, and by halfway stage of the season, Team Jordan were in 6th place with 10 points and well past the tail-enders, who would fight in prequalifying for the second half of the season.

While Italian F1 veteran, Andrea de Cesaris would drive the No.33 Jordan-Cosworth 191 thoughout the season, the No.32 car would see four drivers. The Belgian with also a French passport, Bertrand Gachot would drive in the first 10 races, until conviction in a British court for having sprayed CS gas (illegal only in the UK) during a clash with a London cab-driver the previous winter, would result in imprisonment in the country of his residence until then, the UK. He would miss four races eventually, before his release, and then find himself no longer with a drive in the Jordan team. Michael Schumacher, would make his F1 debut, in the No.32 car at Spa-Francorchamps in the 11th race, then find himself with a contract with the Benetton team. So for the next two races of 1991, Roberto Moreno, the driver losing his seat at Benetton to Michael Schumacher would take over the No.32 Jordan-Cosworth and then find Italian debutante Alessandro Zanardi, taking over the Jordan for the last three races of the year.

Team Jordan would score its points in 1991 in five consecutive races starting from the 5th race of the season at Montreal. At Montreal, de Cesaris would finish 4th, 1 minute and 20 seconds behind the surprise winner, Nelson Piquet, in a Benetton-Cosworth, after Nigel Mansell had blown his win away waving to the crowds on the last lap and stalling his engine. Bertrand Gachot would finish 5th to give the debutante team a brace of F1 points. de Cesaris would repeat the finish at Mexico City, take a 6th at Magny-Cours, Gachot would chip in with a sixth at Silverstone, and in the 11th race of the season at Hockenheim, de Cesaris and Gachot would finish 5th and sixth to complete points’ scoring for the year for the debutante team. Jordan would end up with 13 points and 5th place among the 18 teams of 1991, with de Cesaris finishing 7th in the World Drivers’ Championship and Gachot 8th. Only 12 of the 18 teams would score a point, with the Big Four - McLaren (139), Williams (125), Ferrari (55.5) and Benetton (38.5) - cornering 89% of the 403 points (15 races x 26 points + half-points race at Adelaide where only 14 laps were run instead of the scheduled 81). Behind Team Jordan would finish teams like Tyrrell, Minardi, Lotus, Brabham and Ligier.

3. 1992-1994: the F1 struggle with Yamaha and Hart

A) The F1 World 1992: This was the year that three-time World Champion Alain Prost would sit out, having been fired from Ferrari before the last race of the 1991 season. This was also Honda’s last year in F1 till the year 2000, and their tenth consecutive year in F1 since coming in as an engine-supplier in 1983 with Spirit and then Williams. Honda’s achievements can be gauged from the fact that their engines won five successive drivers’ championship between 1987 and 1991, and six consecutive constructors’ titles between 1986 and 1991 – a feat matched only by Ferrari between 1999 and 2004.

1992 would be the story of the Williams-Renault FW14B, which would win the first five races of the year, eight of the first ten races, and ten of the eventual sixteen. 1992 would see Brit Nigel Mansell win his first World Championship after his F1 debut in 1980 with nine wins during the year and wrapping up the title by the eleventh race of the year at the Hungaroring. Mansell and his Williams teammate, Patrese, would finish first and second in the World Championship standings. This was the year which would see a former triple World Champion offer to drive for free in 1993, in his effort to get into a Williams Renault car for 1993, only to be baulked by another then triple World Champion, Prost, sitting out 1992, but with a contract for the No.1 Williams car for 1993. The end of 1992 would also see Nigel Mansell, fresh from winning his first World Championship after 13 years in F1, having to go to CART for 1993, unable to come to terms with Frank Williams for 1993.

B) Team Jordan 1992: For 1992, Team Jordan would shift from Cosworth to free Yamaha engine supply. The drivers of the Jordan-Yamaha 192 would be Italian Stefano Modena in the No.32 and Brazilian Mauricio Gugelmin in the No.33 car. In 16 races, the only finish in the points and in the top six would occur in the very last race at Adelaide where Modena would finish 6th. The team would end in 11th place with that one point, helped by two seventh places, non-point scoring, but enhancing the final quality needed to upstage two other teams, Minardi-Lamborghini and Larrousse-Lamborghini, also with one point. Modena would have a sixth at Adelaide, a seventh at Suzuka, 2 more finishes, 8 retirements and four non-qualifications in his sixteen races, while Gugelmin would have a seventh at Imola, another 4 finishes out of points, and 11 retirements. Three teams, Williams (164), McLaren (99) and Benetton (91), would corner 354 of the 416 points on offer, leaving only 62 to the remaining 13 teams.

C) The F1 World 1993: Prost would win his fourth World Championship in the Williams Renault with seven wins, and exit F1, once it was revealed that Senna would be the other Williams’ driver for 1994. His team-mate, Damon Hill, forced into actual racing from his testing duties at Williams, and his 1992 qualifying charade at Brabham, finished third in the World Championship with 3 wins. McLaren – with Senna (73 points,5 wins,2nd in WC Standings), Michael Andretti (races 1-13) and Häkkinen (races 14-16) – would without Honda engines shift to Cosworths and engage in a fight for second place with the Benetton team, also on Cosworth engines, of Michael Schumacher (52 points, 1w) and Riccardo Patrese.

D) Team Jordan 1993: Team Jordan on Hart engines would finish 11th in the World Championship Standings with 3 points with F1 debutante, Rubens Barrichello, driving all the sixteen races in the No.14 Jordan, finally scoring a 5th place at the 15th race of the season at Suzuka and Eddie Irvine, making his F1 debut at Suzuka, following him home in 6th in the No.15 car. Car No.15 would see Italian Ivan Capelli for the first two races, Belgian veteran Thierry Boutsen for the next ten races, F1 home debutante Marco Apicella for the thirteenth race at Monza, another Italian Emanuele Naspetti for the 14th race at Estoril and finally Eddie Irvine for the last two races. Suzuka, the 15th race of the season, would see Barrichello qualify 12th with a time of 1m39.426s behind his new teammate, Irvine, 8th with a time of 1m38.966s. Prost was on pole with 1m37.154s, but the intermittent weather conditions, helped Senna, come from second in the start grid to take the chequered flag in 1h40m27.912s. It was McLaren’s 103rd GP win, equaling Ferrari’s haul until then.

Barrichello, outqualified by a Jordan team-mate for the first time in 1993, finished fifth, a minute and a half behind Senna, with Irvine another 11 seconds adrift. Barrichello, making his F1 debut, had a 15-1 qualifying record against his teammates, finishing with a 7th at Magny Cours, 5 more finishes, and 9 retirements.The #15 car would also see nine retirements, one each from Capelli, Apicella, Naspetti, and Irvine and five from Boutsen.

E) The F1 World 1994: 1994 was the year of tragedy with the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger at Imola. It would see a first World Championship for Michael Schumacher, though ahead only by a point, after the last race of the season at Suzuka, decided by a collision between the World Championship contenders. But Schumacher had a win at Spa and a second place at Silverstone taken away as well as two more races where he was suspended for an overtaking incident on the warm-up lap at Silverstone, for which he was later black-flagged. McLaren would try out Peugeot engines this year, before shifting to Mercedes from 1995.

F) Team Jordan 1994: Jordan would continue with Barrichello and Irvine as drivers for this season in the No.14 and No.15 Jordan-Hart 194 cars. In the very first race at Interlagos, Irvine was involved in an overtaking incident with Benetton’s Verstappen and McLaren’s Brundle, which would see his suspension for the next three races. So the No.15 car was driven by Aguri Suzuki for the Pacific GP at Aida, and by de Cesaris for the next two races, before Irvine’s return in the 5th race at Catalunya. 1994 would see Jordan finish 5th in the WC standings with 28 points, with 19 points coming from Barrichello, 6 from Irvine, and 3 from de Cesaris. Barrichello outqualified Irvine 8-5 in the 13 races they raced together, with a pole at Spa-Francorchamps in qualifying marred by sudden rain being the highlight. Barrichello’s points would come from a first ever podium for team Jordan at Aida, a third place, and five fourth places at Interlagos (r1), Silverstone (r8), Monza (r12), Estoril (r13), and Adelaide (r16). Andrea de Cesaris would finish 4th at Monte Carlo while Irvine would finish 4th at Jerez (r14), 5th at Suzuka (r15) and 6th at Catalunya (r5).

4. 1995-1997: Better luck with Peugeot, discarded by McLaren

A) F1 World 1995: 1995 would see an easy romp to the World Championship for Michael Schumacher, with Benetton having shifted to Renault engines for the year. Schumacher and Herbert took 11 wins in the 17-race season. Mercedes Benz dropped Sauber and embarked onto full partnership with the McLaren team. Peugeot engine-supply, as a consequence, went to Jordan.

B) Team Jordan 1995: Team Jordan retained the same driver combination first established at Suzuka in 1993: Barrichello and Irvine. With no suspensions and a full complement of 17 races, Barrichello finished with 11 points to Eddie Irvine’s 10, giving Team Jordan 5th place in Constructor team standings with 21 points. Again a few races provided most of Jordan’s points.

The Canadian GP, the sixth race of the season, saw Barrichello and Irvine finish second and third, behind birthday boy and first-time F1 GP winner (and ex-Jordan driver, though till then only in F3000), Jean Alesi. This was the first double-podium at the same race for Jordan. In addition, there was a fourth place each for Barrichello at the European GP (r14) and for Irvine at Suzuka (r16). Barrichello’s remaining two point scores came from sixth places at Magny-Cours (r7) and Spa-Francorchamps (r11). Though finishing 11th in the drivers’ World Championship standings, Barrichello had only 4 points finishes in addition to 10 retirements. Eddie Irvine finishing a place behind his teammate in the standings, also had 4 points’ finishes with a 5th at Catalunya (r5) and a 6th at the European GP (r14), besides 8 retirements.

C) F1 World 1996: 1996 would see Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari and derided for it by critics, for leaving a World Championship-winning team, lured by unprecedented lucre. But he would show his mettle with 3 wins at Catalunya (r7), Spa-Francorchamps (r13) and Monza (r14) to end up third behind the Williams-Renault duo of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. Hill won 8 races and F1 debutante Villeneuve another 4 races to give Williams a 1-2 in the World Championship. Panis would give Ligier a rare win at Monaco.

D) Team Jordan 1996: Jordan finished 5th yet again, with 22 points this time, with Barrichello scoring 14 and Martin Brundle, driving in place of Eddie Irvine, who had gone to join Schumacher at Ferrari, 8 points. No Jordan driver ascended the podium in 1996, with Barrichello’s points coming from two 4th places at Bueno Aires (r3), and Silverstone (r10), three 5th places at the Nürburgring (r4), Imola (r5), and Monza (r14) and two 6th places at Hockenheim and Hungary. Brundle’s tally would comprise of a 4th at Monza (r14), a 5th at Suzuka (r16), and three sixth places at the Nürburgring (r4), Montreal (r8) and at Silverstone (r10). Each Jordan driver would retire in seven races, showing greater reliability in Peugeot’s second year.

E) F1 World 1997: 1997 would see Barrichello finally move from Jordan, to Stewart, in its debut year in F1. It was also the year which saw Michael Schumacher ‘stripped’ of second place in the World Championship standings for his resorting to a collision to try to hold on to his slender 1- point lead in the Championship, in the last race of the season at Jerez. The controversy in effect glossed over the progress Ferrari and Schumacher had done, to be in a position to fight so closely for the World Championship, after the derision that had met his move to Ferrari only a year before.

Villeneuve would take his first World Championship in only his second year in F1 with seven wins to Michael Schumacher’s five. Coulthard would win at Melboune in the season opener to open Mercedes Benz’s account in its second foray as an engine supplier, and repeat it at Monza in the 14th race of the season. Hakkinen would be ‘allowed’ to win at Jerez, his first GP win since his F1 debut at Phoenix in March 1991 (GP No.501). With Jerez being GP No.614, it had taken 114 races before the World Champion of 1998 and 1999 had opened his winning account. Of course he had not driven in all the 114 races, having missed 19 races during that period.

F) Team Jordan 1997: Giancarlo Fisichella, who had made his F1 debut in 1996 with the Minardi M196 Ford, and new debutante Ralf Schumacher were Jordan’s drivers in 1997. Jordan would score 33 points, but finish 5th yet again in the World Championship standings. Fisichella’s points would come from a 2nd at Belgium (r12), a 3rd at Canada (r7), three 4ths at Imola (r4), Monza (r13) and Austria (r14), and a 6th at Monaco (r5). Ralf would finish 3rd at Buenos Aires (r3), have four 5th places at Silverstone (r9), Hockenheim (r10), Hungary (r11) and Austria (r14), as well as a 6th at Magny-Cours (r8). Ralf would retire in 10 races and Fisichella in 4 races, and Fisichella would end up 8th in standings with Ralf 11th.

5. 1998-2000: Jordan’s F1 pinnacle with Mugen

A) The F1 World 1998: 1998 proved to be the year of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 cars with Mika Hakkinen winning the drivers’ title with 100 points and 8 wins and David Coulthard supporting the Finn with 56 points and one win. Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were second with 6 wins. McLaren and Ferrari took the top four places in the points standings with a total of 289 points of the 416 on offer in the 16 races, claiming 15 wins in 16 races, 39 of the 48 podiums, and 47 of the 96 points’ scoring positions in a season characterized by a straight fight between two top teams for the Championship. Williams, without Renault power, for the first time in the non-turbo age, were in battle only for minor places.

B) Team Jordan 1998: Damon Hill, the 1996 World Champion had come to Jordan via Arrows to take the No.9 Jordan-Mugen 198 car, while Ralf would drive the No.10 car in the 1998 season. This was the season where the Jordan team would notch up its first win in F1, at the Belgian GP, and would also finish 4th in the constructor standings with 34 points, only 4 points behind the Williams-Mecachrome team. 16 of these points would come from one race - the Belgian GP, the 13th race of the season - held on August 30th at Spa-Francorchamps, where Damon Hill would take an unlikely win and Ralf would follow him in second place, less than a second behind. The real story of the Belgian GP had been the collision by outright race leader, Michael Schumacher, more than 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack, in pouring rain, while coming up to lap the McLaren of David Coulthard, who had been guilty already of causing a first corner restart. Anyway, the Jordans deserving of the 2nd and 3rd places on merit, found themselves occupying both the top two steps on the podium, as a result of the leader being taken out. Hill would finish 1998 with 20 points and 6th place in the World Championship, while Ralf would have 14 points and 10th place. Other than the win, Hill would finish 4th three times - Hockenheim (r11), Hungary (r12) and Suzuka (r16). He would finish 6th at Monza, while having only 4 retirements. Ralf would take another podium with a 3rd at Monza, a 5th at Austria, and two 6th places at Silverstone(r9) and Hockenheim (r11), besides 7 retirements. In effect, Mugen, which had been lucky for Jordan in F3000 would prove to be Jordan’s best engine choice in their 14 years in F1.

C) The F1 World 1999: 1999 would see Ferrari take the Constructors title after 16 years. But their No.1 driver Michael Schumacher would break his leg at Silverstone in the 8th race of the year, and would return only in the 15th race at Malaysia. In the meantime, Ferrari’s second driver, Eddie Irvine, would mount a very serious challenge to Mika Häkkinen, only to lose the Championship at the last race, won by Häkkinen, by 2 points.

D) Team Jordan 1999: 1999 would be Jordan’s greatest year in F1 with Heinz Harald Frentzen driving the No.8 Jordan-Mugen 199 to 3rd place in the both the Drivers’ as well as the Constructors’ Championships. Frentzen would start the season with a 2nd at Melbourne and a 3rd at Interlagos. A 4th at Monaco in the 4th race were all the points from the next 4 races. Then from the seventh race to the 13th race, Frentzen scored 37 points, including 2 wins, two 3rds and three 4ths. If the World Championship had been limited to just those 7 races, Jordan would have had a new World Champion, since in those seven races, Frentzen outscored Coulthard (36 points), Irvine (35 points), Häkkinen (26 points), and Ralf (18 points). But unfortunately, World Championships are decided over the full complement of races, and a 6th at Malaysia, and a 4th at Suzuka were good enough only for 56 points in the season and third place behind Häkkinen (76) and Irvine (74). His teammate, former World Champion, Damon Hill, would score only 7 points and would bow out of F1 after 1999.

E) The F1 World 2000: The 21st century would see a complete domination from Michael Schumacher and Ferrari in the first five years of the new millennium. But the fight was closest in 2000, with Schumacher trailing Häkkinen by 6 points and ahead of Coulthard by 7 points, with only the last 4 races of the season’s 17 to be run. But Michael Schumacher won all the four races to give Ferrari a World Drivers’ Championship after 20 years in the F1 wilderness. 2000 would see an all-time high in the cornering of points and places by the top two teams: Ferrari and McLaren. Schumacher (108), Häkkinen (89), Coulthard (73) and Barrichello (62) would take 332 of the 442 points on offer, including all 17 race wins, sixteen 2nd places, and ten 3rd places to corner 43 of the 51 podium finishes of the year. 2000 would also see the entry of BMW with Williams, and Honda (for the 3rd time) with BAR.

F) Team Jordan 2000: Jordan’s last year with Mugen would also see the first time Eddie Jordan would bring in his initials in the naming of his 2000 model car. In 2000 the Jordan-Mugen EJ10 would start the fall to the end coming in 2004. In 2000, Jordan would score 17 points and the 6th place, but after the hype and glory of 1999, the comedown was swift and brutal. Frentzen in the No.5 car would climb the lowest rung of the podium twice, and that would be the highlight of the season for the EJ10. The 3rd places would come at Interlagos (r2) and at Indianapolis (r15). Frentzen would score 11 points in the season and his new teammate Trulli 6. Frentzen would have three 6th places and 10 retirements, while Trulli’s best would be a 4th at Interlagos behind Frentzen. He would also have three 6th place finishes and 7 retirements.

6. 2001-2002: Jordan loses out ultimately on Honda ‘works’ dream

A) The F1 World 2001: 2001 would finally signal the resurgence of the Williams’ team after the loss of Renault at end of 1997. But the resurgence would take place under the slowly enveloping shadow of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Ferrari seemed to be making up for the 20 years without a drivers’ championship, and Michael for the four desert years of 1996-1999. Also, it signaled a new facet of Ferrari, that in the year following triumph, celebrating and basking in the glow was given the go by, and focus was on building on strengths to sustain domination. After all, it was Ferrari which having won the 1979 World Championship with Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve (first and second in 1979), would crumple to just eight points and the tenth place in 1980, with the very same pair of drivers. 2001 would be Mika Hakkinen’s final year in F1, but it would also witness the F1 debut of Juan Montoya, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso.

B) Team Jordan 2001: With Toyota entering F1 in 2002 (spending 2001, their mandatory preparatory year, at all race venues), Honda extended engine supply to Team Jordan, in an effort to select their best partner. At the end of 2001, it appeared that Jordan had emerged the technical winner, with 19 points and 5th place vis-à-vis BAR’s 17 points and 6th place. Jordan started the year with the self-same pair of drivers: Frentzen and Trulli. Jordan had the upper-hand initially it seemed. Frentzen and Trulli qualified 4th and 7th, compared to the 8th and 9th of the BAR pair (Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis), at the first race at Melbourne, and Frentzen would finish 5th to start the scoring for Jordan in 2001. Another 4th for Frentzen at Sepang in the 2nd race only confirmed the trend. Interlagos would see Panis 4th, just ahead of Trulli 5th, while Imola would see Trulli and Frentzen finish 5th and 6th. Then it appeared that Frentzen, the driver who would eventually end as Jordan’s best ever in F1, was unhappy with the team, as three retirements followed at the next thee races. Meanwhile Villeneuve would finish 3rd at Catalunya (Trulli 4th), Panis 5th in Austria and Villeneuve 4th again at Monte Carlo. After 7 races, it seemed touch and go with BAR marginally behind, 12-13, with Villeneuve and Trulli on 7 points, Frentzen on 6 and Panis on 5. But for Canada, Frentzen was rested after his crash at Monaco, and Ricardo Zonta took his place. None of the four drivers would score a point at Montreal, though Zonta would finish 7th.

But the start of Frentzen’s eventual departure from the team three races later and replacement from Hungary with Alesi (having a major fight of his own at Prost), seems to have been born at Canada. Trulli would finish 5th at Magny Cours and extend Jordan to 15-12 against BAR. At Hockenheim (r12), a 3rd for Villeneuve would give the advantage to BAR 16-15, in the race that saw Zonta deputing for Frentzen, as a prelude to Alesi’s entry into the team at Hungary. After Frentzen’s departure, Jordan’s qualifying advantage departed: Frentzen in 10 races had a best of Q4 and an average of Q7.8, his replacements, Zonta qualified 12th and 15th in the two races, while Alesi would have a best of Q9 and an average of Q12.2 in his five races with Jordan. The only further points’ finishes for either team would be a 6th for Alesi at Belgium (r14), another 6th for Villeneuve at Monza (r15), before Trulli’s 4th at Indianapolis (r16) would give final advantage to Jordan 19-17.

C) The F1 World 2002: 2002 would see Ferrari grow to total domination, winning 15 of the 17 races, Michael Schumacher wrapping up the Drivers’ title by France (r11), and Ferrari, the Constructors’ title by Hungary (r13). All the unnecessary uproar raised by the sporting press over Austria (r6) would lead to the Barrichello ‘winning’ at the Nürburgring (r9), Hungary (r13), Monza (r15) and Indianapolis (r16), with Schumi second at all of them. Toyota’s maiden season in F1, Renault’s first season since 1984 as a complete manufacturer team in F1, replacing Benetton, besides Williams’ wresting the runner-up spot from the McLaren duo of DC and Kimi would be the other points of interest in the season.

D) Team Jordan 2002: The final year of Jordan and BAR using works’ Honda engines would again see Jordan edging out BAR 9 points to 7, and 6th place in the Constructors’ standings to 8th place for BAR. With an all-new driver pairing of Fisichella (earlier with Jordan in 1997) and Takuma Sato, Jordan’s redemption came only from a great drive by Sato at Japan in the final race, finishing 5th, and getting the two points needed to overtake BAR. But it was a case of battle won, and the war lost, when BAR was selected by Honda as its exclusive partner in F1 for the future. In effect, Eddie Jordan had lost. What could have been a major card was not played, with Eddie Jordan not having signed Sato to more than the one year contract. Knowing what has happened thereafter, if Eddie Jordan, despite all the hullabaloo raised by the press over Sato’s more spectacular crashes during the year, had confirmed that he would retain Sato, it is arguable whether Honda could have ditched the team with the only Japanese driver in F1. Anyway, at end, Jordan had lost the chance to secure a works’ contract and resultant funding and stability, and with only General Motors and the Audi/Volkswagen group, of the top car manufacturers not in F1, engine-supply would remain a vexing question in the remaining two years of Jordan in F1.

7. 2003-2004: The end of the F1 dream

A) The F1 World 2003: 2003 would see a new points system and a new qualifying format. Temporarily, it brought the top teams closer, with Ferrari (158 points) only edging out Williams-BMW (144) and McLaren Mercedes (142) in the fight for the Constructors’ title and Michael Schumacher (93) doing the same to Kimi Raikkonen (91) and Juan Montoya (82). The new points’ system which added 2 points to every placing from 2nd to 7th and one point to the driver finishing 8th, but with no additional points for the race winner, seemed to hide the fact that Ferrari had won eight of the sixteen races, as against four by Williams and just two by McLaren.

B) Team Jordan 2003: The penultimate year of the team in F1 saw the use of the ubiquitous Cosworth engines, along with the works’ Jaguar team and the F1 minnows, Minardi. The only silver lining in the dark clouds over the team came at Interlagos when a week after the race, Fisichella was declared the race winner. Yet the only effect was that Jordan still finished 9th among the 10 teams in F1, with the only other points coming from Firman finishing 8th at Catalunya and Fisichella 7th in the USA.

C) The F1 World 2004: It was 2002 all over again, with Michael Schumacher winning the first five races of an eighteen-race year, then being bumped off by a driver one lap down, while leading behind the safety car at Monaco, then winning the next 7 races on the trot. Ferrari would end with 262 points (Schumi 148 points with 13 wins, Rubens 114 points, 2 wins) and a one-two finish in the drivers’ championship. BAR (119 points) and Renault (105) would finish ahead of BMW Williams (88), and McLaren-Mercedes (69).

New rules regarding an engine having to last an entire race-weekend (otherwise, penalized 10 positions in qualifying) and another revision in the qualifying format failed to make F1 any more competitive. It would see Ford make an exit from F1, in which Cosworth engines would power teams to 176 of the 720 Grand Prix, excluding the eleven Indy 500 races, which are part of the F1 count.

D) Team Jordan 2004: The last year in F1 saw Jordan retain its 9th place with just 5 points to Minardi’s 1. Two 7th places and an eighth would be all that Jordan could muster. It seems ironical that if the new points system of 2003 had not been in place, Team Jordan would have ended up with zero points for the first time in its F1 career.

E) The End in F1: When in early 2005, it was announced that the Midland Group would be buying Jordan, but would run the 2005 cars as ‘Jordan-Toyota EJ15’, it merely marked a bonus fifteenth year for Eddie Jordan. Team Jordan was only nominally in F1 existence, the heart and soul were gone.

8. The drivers, debutantes and a summation

A) The drivers: In fourteen years in F1, the team would use 28 drivers. Only eight would last into a second season. Eleven would be F1 debutantes. Nine would complete their F1 careers with a year at Jordan. There would be 9 Italians, 5 Germans, 4 Brits, 2 Belgians, and one each from France and Hungary in the 22 European drivers used, plus 4 Brazilians and two drivers from Japan.

The top five drivers - HHF (71 points, 43 races), Barrichello (46 points, 64 races), Fisichella (39 points, 50 races), Damon Hill (27 points, 32 races), and Ralf Schumacher (27 points, 33 races) - would contribute to 210 of the 279 points scored by Team Jordan in 14 years. The three others lasting beyond a solitary season - Trulli (18 points,34 races), Irvine (17 points,32 races) and de Cesaris (12 points, 18 races) – would score another 47 of the 69 points left. The remaining 22 points would be scored by another 8 drivers: Brundle (8 points, 16r), Gachot (4 points, 10 r), Sato (2 points, 17 r), Modena (1 point, 16r) and Alesi (1 point, 5r) plus points of the 2003 points ‘quality’, by Firman (1 point, 14r), Heidfeld (3 points, 18r) and Glock (2 points, 4r). Twelve drivers would not score in the races they raced for Jordan: Michael Schumacher (1r), Moreno (2r), Zanardi (3r), Gugelmin (16r), Capelli (2r), Boutsen (10r), Apicella (1r), Naspetti (1r), Aguri Suzuki (1r), Zonta (2r), Baumgartner (1r),and Pantano (14r).

B) The Debutantes: Eleven drivers would make their F1 debut with Jordan. Four of them will be on the F1 starting grid in 2005 - Michael Schumacher (born 3rd Jan 1969, debut at the Belgian GP on 25th August 1991 in the 11th of 16 races), Rubens Barrichello (born 23rd May,1972, debut at Kyalami on 14th March 1993 in the first race of the year), Ralf Schumacher (born 30th June,1975, debut at Melbourne on 9th March, 1997), and Takuma Sato (born 20th January 1977, debut at Melbourne on 3rd March 2002). The only other long lasting debut was that of Eddie Irvine: born 10th November 1965, debut at Suzuka on 24th October 1993, in the 15th of 1993’s 16 races). Five more of the rest would make a mid-season debut and the two remaining in the season’s first race. Of the eleven debutantes, the youngest would be Barrichello (20 years,9 months) who would come into F1 as a British Formula 3 champion, followed by Ralf Schumacher (21 years, 8 months), coming into F1 as the Formula Nippon champion. Three drivers would be in their 28th year, when making their debut with Jordan - Marco Apicella (27 years,11 months), Irvine (27 years, 11 months), and Firman (27 years,9 months). And ironically, in the 15th year, when the Midland cars are run as Jordan-Toyota EJ15s, there will be two new debutantes - Narain Karthikeyan (India, 28 years, 1 month), and Tiago Monteiro (Portugal, 28 years,7 months) – and they will be the oldest two to debut in a Jordan car.

C) A Summation: Team Jordan would score 279 points from their 231 races in F1. They entered F1 in the 501st GP and exited effectively at the 731st GP. Their best finish would be the 3rd in 1999. Their best driver would be Heinz-Harald Frentzen. And their best engine would be Mugen. Four races would be the highlight - Spa Francorchamps (August 30th, 1998), Magny-Cours (June 28th, 1999), Monza (September 12th, 1999) and Interlagos (April 6th, 2003).

Year

Model

points

pos

W

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

1991

191 Ford

13

5th









2

2

3





1992

192 Yamaha

1

11th











1





1993

193 Hart

3

11th









1

1





1994

194 Hart

28

5th





1

7

1

1





1995

195 Peugeot

21

6th



1

1

2

1

3





1996

196 Peugeot

22

5th









3

4

5





1997

197 Peugeot

33

5th



1

2

3

4

2





1998

198 Mugen

34

4th

1

1

1

3

1

3





1999

199 Mugen

61

3rd

2

1

3

6

1

3





2000

EJ10 Mugen

17

6th





2

1

6





2001

EJ11 Honda

19

5th









3

4

2





2002

EJ12 Honda

9

6th











4

1





2003

EJ13 Cosworth

13

9th

1













1

1

2004

EJ14 Cosworth

5

9th

















2

1




Total

 

279

 

 

4

4

10

 

30

23

31

 

3

2



Engine

Points

Races

Years

W

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

Mugen

112

49

3

3

2

6

10

2

12





Peugeot

76

50

3

0

2

3

3

8

3





Hart

31

32

2

0

0

1

8

9

10





Honda

28

34

2









7

2

2





Ford

31

50

3

1

0

0

2

2

3

3

2

Yamaha

1

16

1









0

0

1





TOTAL

 

279

231

14

 

4

4

10

 

30

23

31

 

3

2



FORIX: Jordan's F1 statistics