Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team was named after Irish businessman and founder Eddie Jordan (1948–2025) and was based at Silverstone, England, but raced with an Irish licence.
In early 2005, the team was sold to Midland Group, who competed for one final season as 'Jordan', before renaming the team as Midland F1 Racing for the 2006 season. Later that same year, it was sold to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker, to become Spyker F1 for the 2007 season, and then sold again to become Force India in 2008. In 2018, as a result of the financial collapse of the Force India team, and its subsequent buyout by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the team's FIA entry was not transferred, and the Jordan Grand Prix's original entry came to an end. As of 2026, the de facto team lineage competes as the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team.
Contents
History
Early history
Eddie Jordan had a brief stint as a race driver in the late 1970s before founding Eddie Jordan Racing in the early 1980s. The team first came to prominence in the 1983 British Formula Three championship with a duel between one-time Jordan test driver Ayrton Senna and Jordan-Ralt driver Martin Brundle. Brundle was edged out by the Brazilian at the last round of the championship. The team graduated to International Formula 3000 for 1988, winning its first race in the category with Johnny Herbert behind the wheel. In 1989, Jordan won the F3000 drivers' championship with future Formula One star Jean Alesi. The team also ran future F1 drivers such as Martin Donnelly and Eddie Irvine in F3000.
Formula One
Jordan's success in lower formulae inspired the creation of a Formula One programme for the 1991 season and a change of name to Jordan Grand Prix. The first driver to test a Jordan F1 car was John Watson. Jordan hired Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian Bertrand Gachot to race his first cars, which were powered by Ford. The team had a very solid debut finishing 5th in the Constructors' Championship, with de Cesaris finishing 9th in the Drivers' Championship. De Cesaris ran second for much of the Belgian Grand Prix, and was actually gaining on leader Ayrton Senna until the car failed in the closing laps. Gachot was sent to prison mid-season for attacking a taxi driver, and was replaced for the Belgian Grand Prix by Michael Schumacher. The team received $150,000 from Mercedes-Benz in return for giving their young German sportscar star experience of Grand Prix racing. Despite Jordan's agreement in principle with Mercedes to retain Schumacher for the remainder of the season, the German driver signed to Benetton-Ford for the following race. Jordan applied for an injunction in the UK courts to prevent Schumacher driving for Benetton, but lost the case as they had not yet signed a contract. Ousted Benetton driver Roberto Moreno and future Champ Car title winner Alessandro Zanardi filled the second car afterwards. Success for Jordan literally came at a high price. The team was forced to switch to cheaper Yamaha engines for the 1992 season. With Maurício Gugelmin and Stefano Modena driving, the team struggled badly and failed to score a point until the final race of the season.
1993 saw further changes, with the team switching engine suppliers, this time to Hart. Again, the season started with two new drivers, Ivan Capelli and Brazilian rookie Rubens Barrichello. Capelli left after two races and five other drivers teamed with Barrichello during the 1993 campaign. Jordan only had moderate improvement, scoring three points. Signs of stability were beginning to show near the end of the season when Barrichello was joined by Eddie Irvine, a former Jordan driver in F3000. Irvine finished sixth and secured a point on his debut Formula One race at Suzuka, memorably unlapping himself against McLaren's Ayrton Senna, in order to overtake Damon Hill. After the race finished, an incensed Senna, infuriated by what he deemed as unsafe racing by Irvine in poor weather conditions, stormed into the Jordan garage and punched Irvine in the face after Irvine pushed him in a heated discussion.
Barrichello and Irvine returned for the 1994 season, as did the Hart engines, but Irvine had a bad start to the season, earning a three-race ban for reckless driving. Barrichello earned the team their first top three finish in Japan at the Pacific Grand Prix, but was nearly killed during the following race in San Marino in a frightening qualifying crash. The team overcame these difficulties and returned to their initial form, repeating its fifth place finish in the Constructors' Championship with 28 points, a notable achievement from a low budget team with an engine designed and built by Darrell O'Brien/Hart Engineering. Barrichello earned Jordan's first pole position after a gamble during a wet qualifying session in Belgium, and finished 6th in the Drivers' Championship with 19 points.
Role in developing driver talent
Jordan Grand Prix was notable for providing the debut to a number of drivers who subsequently enjoyed considerable F1 and wider motor-racing careers. This was due to both Eddie Jordan's experience managing the careers of drivers (most notably Jean Alesi) before entering his own team to F1, and the team's ongoing need for funding which new drivers frequently brought via personal sponsorship. Notably successful drivers who began their F1 careers with Jordan include multiple World Champion Michael Schumacher (1991), Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Champion Alex Zanardi (1991), F1 race winners Rubens Barrichello (1993), Eddie Irvine (1993), and Ralf Schumacher (1997), and Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato (2002). The close-knit and relaxed atmosphere of the team also allowed drivers who had failed to achieve expectations with other teams to perform at their best. Most notably, Heinz-Harald Frentzen won two races to challenge for the 1999 World Championship, something he had failed to do for the much more competitive Williams team in 1997. Andrea de Cesaris rehabilitated his reputation from that of a 'crasher' to become a dependable driver during his season with the team in 1991, and Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Nick Heidfeld each used their time at Jordan Grand Prix to show potential and be recruited by larger teams.
As well as giving both Michael and Ralf Schumacher their F1 debuts, Jordan benefited from Germany's growing interest in Formula One during the 1990s and early 2000s, with the other notable German drivers of the era (Frentzen, Heidfeld, and Timo Glock) all driving for the team and Deutsche Post World Net being a major sponsor of the team from 2000 to 2003.
Sponsorship
In 1991, the team was sponsored by soft drink brand 7 Up, but despite the team's moderately successful first season and Eddie Jordan saying the team had "more than fulfilled our part of the bargain", the sponsorship was replaced by South African energy company Sasol until 1994, with Barclay supplementing until 1993. In the team's first year with Peugeot engines, fuel supplier Total was the title sponsor in 1995.
From 1996 to 2005, Benson & Hedges was the primary sponsor of Jordan. At races where the ban on cigarette advertising was in force, the name was replaced by "Bitten & Hisses" (in 1997 when Jordan's mascot was the snake Hissing Sid) or the names of the team's drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher, with additional 'S's, "Buzzin Hornets" (while the mascot was an unnamed hornet from 1998 to 2000), "Bitten Heroes" (during 2001, when the team's mascot was a shark), and from 2002 to 2005 'Be On Edge' (BENSON & HEDGES). It was in the sponsor's first year that the team coloured their cars in the gold of their cigarette packet and then switched to yellow after that.
For 2002, title sponsorship went to delivery company DHL, before reverting to Benson & Hedges (which remained a major sponsor in 2002). At the 2004 and 2005 United States Grands Prix, Sobranie was advertised instead; the team (along with Scuderia Ferrari) had previously run non-tobacco liveries on previous United States Grands Prix due to U.S. Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement requirements, as a clause in the settlement restricted Philip Morris USA (who holds the Benson & Hedges trademark in the United States) to one sponsorship, that of Team Penske in American open-wheel racing.
EJ-10
EJ-10 was an energy drink marketed by the Jordan Formula One team. The energy drink was heavily advertised as free of caffeine and taurine to avoid a sugar crash, and as having a fruity flavour and providing energy for up to 90 minutes. It was sold in bright yellow 250 mL and 380 mL bottles, decorated to evoke the image of Jordan's Formula One cars. Jordan Grand Prix used the Sutherland Hawes design agency to create and market the energy drink. At the height of its popularity EJ-10 was available around the world, including Ireland, Germany, Colombia, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico.
In 2002, the 380 ml bottles of EJ-10 were recalled in Ireland after it was discovered it contained unacceptable levels of benzene.
V-10 is a spinoff of EJ-10; it retains the basic formula but adds vodka.
Honda Civic Jordan
To commemorate the team's successful 1999 campaign powered by Mugen-Honda engines, Honda sold 500 limited edition Honda Civic models called Civic Jordan in the United Kingdom. Based on the EK4 VTi-S hatchback model, the cars were painted Sunlight Yellow and featured yellow-and-black leather interior, Jordan decals on the sides and rear of the car as well as stitched into the seats and floor carpets, and body kit partially based on the Japanese Type-R model. Apart from a signed Eddie Jordan plaque on the cars' centre console, the team had no involvement on the development on the car, which performed otherwise similar to a standard VTi model.
Books
Several books have been published that provided a comprehensive understanding of Jordan Grand Prix. The most comprehensive was the 1994 book Race Without End. Authored by Maurice Hamilton, a seasoned Formula 1 professional, the book chronicles the events and experiences of Jordan Grand Prix during the 1993 season.