Eddie Jordan, former F1 team owner and TV pundit, has passed away at age 76 after battling an aggressive form of cancer.
As team owner, Jordan leaves behind a lasting legacy, having developed some of motorsport’s most promising talents – including Rubens Barrichello, Jean Alesi, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill. More recently, he served as Adrian Newey’s manager, facilitating the superstar F1 designer’s early release from Red Bull and move to Aston Martin.
Jordan started off his motorsport career as a budding racer, competing in Formula Ford, Formula 3, Formula 2 and even the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The flamboyant Irishman then switched focus to team ownership, with his eponymous Jordan team rising through the single-seater ranks before entering F1 in 1991. Jordan famously gave Michael Schumacher his F1 debut during that season and the team defied expectations to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship.
Damon Hill handed Jordan its first race win at the rain-hit 1998 Belgian GP, with Ralf Schumacher following him to hand the team a 1-2 finish. In 1999, Jordan developed the reputation of being a ‘giant killer’, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen emerging as a surprise title contender.
Jordan eventually sold the team ahead of the 2005 season. The team still raced under the Jordan name that year and made history by giving Narain Karthikeyan his debut, marking the first time an Indian raced in F1.
The following year, the team was renamed to Midland. Since then, it has raced as Spyker, Force India, Racing Point and has now evolved into Aston Martin’s works F1 team.
In the years since, Jordan remained a high profile figure in F1 with his TV pundit role. Late last year, he had revealed that he been diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder and prostate cancer.
“We are deeply saddened to hear about the sudden loss of Eddie Jordan,” said F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali. “With his inexhaustible energy he always knew how to make people smile, remaining genuine and brilliant at all times. Eddie has been a protagonist of an era of F1 and he will be deeply missed.”
