Jordan (Formula 1 Team)

The team was founded by former rider and successful entrepreneur Irishman Eddie Jordan , and named after him, originally Eddie Jordan Racing, later shortened to Jordan GP. Since the mid-80s, the team began successful performances in various championships of "junior" formulas. The sponsor of the young stable was the Camel cigarette brand. Success came to the team in 1989, when Jean Alesi at the Eddie Jordan Racing car became the champion of Formula 3000, gaining an equal number of points with Eric Coma, but gained more victories. In the middle of the 1989 season, Alesi made his debut in the Formula 1 championship. In 1991, the Jordan team also moved there.

Eddie Jordan, Founding Father

The debut of “Jordan Ford ” in Formula 1 was impressive. Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot regularly scored points. However, Gasho was imprisoned for several months for a street fight, and the Jordan were forced to seek a replacement. Instead of Gachot at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1991, the future world champion Michael Schumacher made his debut, but did not go in the debut race and one lap. This race was significant for the team in that for the first time its pilot was close to getting on the podium - a few laps before the finish teammate Schumacher de Cesaris went into the race in second place and really could compete for the victory, but three laps before the finish he left race without earning a single point. Soon, Schumacher received a lucrative contract with the Benetton team, and Alex Zanardi and Roberto Moreno took his place. Despite the fact that none of them scored a point, the team finished the season in fifth place.

The next two years the team spent in a deep crisis caused by the lack of competitiveness of Yamaha and Hart engines . Only at the 1993 Japan Grand Prix, the team's pilots, newcomers Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello , finally brought the team points. This race ended with the infamous scuffle when world champion Ayrton Senna attacked Irvine in the pits, cutting him off during the Grand Prix. Eddie was forced to miss the first two races of the 1994 championship. Having changed the engines to Peugeot from the next year, the team began to score points regularly, breaking out of outsiders. Barrichello and Irvine once finished in third place.

The 1997 season, Jordan began with an updated roster - the promising Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Schumacher - and in the colors of the new sponsor Benson & Hedges. On the nose of the yellow-black car was a snake. Updated “Jordan” won 33 points, a number of podiums and fifth place. The following year, Eddie Jordan signed an important contract for the supply of engines with the concern Honda . Fisichella was replaced by the world champion, veteran Damon Hill , and the snake was replaced by a bee more suitable for coloring. At the Belgian Grand Prix in 1998, in a torrential rain, the team won the first victory in its history, which was also the last victory in Hill's career. Ralph, finishing second, completed the “double”. In the Constructors' Cup, Eddie Jordan's stables moved up to rank four, outpacing the Benetton for the first time in ten years.

The 1999 Formula 1 season was the best in team history. Eddie Jordan exchanged with Frank Williams , replacing Ralph Schumacher with Heinz-Harald Frentzen , and Mike Gascoigne created the best car ever at the disposal of Jordan GP. During the season, Frentzen won two victories, won pole position at the Nurburgring and fought closely for the title with Eddie Irvine from Ferrari and Mika Hakkinen from McLaren , eventually leading himself and his team to the bronze of the personal and team championships. The season was the last for Damon Hill - a tired veteran was noticeably inferior to the German, and never even got on the podium. In his last race, the champion voluntarily left the track, not seeing the possibility of a successful finish.

His replacement was Jarno Trulli , stabilizing the composition. The next two years, Frentzen and Trulli successfully performed, regularly bringing points and often rising to the podium, but no longer won victories. In addition, Jordan's chief designer, Mike Gascoigne, moved to Benetton. The main problem for Eddie was the appearance of a competitor from the BAR team : the Honda concern decided to seriously deploy the Formula 1 program and in 2000 began to supply BAR with similar engines. Japanese motorists ambiguously made it clear that they were choosing between the two teams for the subsequent creation of a factory stable .

In 2001 , Frentzen quarreled with Jordan, with the scandal he was fired from the team and replaced with veteran Jean Alesi, an old friend of Eddie. However, the problems continued, the restriction of tobacco advertising caused problems with the sponsor Benson & Hedges, and Jordan could not hire Alesi the next year to partner with Fisichella, who returned to the team. He was forcedly replaced by a Japanese rental driver Takuma Sato , hoping to attract the location of Honda. However, the concern was already inclined to buy BAR, as it was obvious that the ambitious and charismatic Eddie Jordan would not give up his job as a hired manager. Since 2003, Honda has stopped supplying its engines to Jordan.

Team results fell even lower. At Jordan, they were forced to abandon the tempting offer to hire Eddie Irvine - the team simply did not have enough money for such a star pilot. Fisichella and his new debutant partner, rental driver Ralph Furman, struggled to get into the glasses. Ironically, it was in this year that the team won their fourth and last victory. This happened at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix . For a dozen laps before the finish of Fisichella on empty tanks, getting ready for refueling he overtook Kimi Raikkonen , who was the leader and already refueling, who was clearly going to victory. But before Fisichella turned into the pits, Fernando Alonso , who was the third, got into a serious accident. The race was stopped, and Raikkonen, who was the leader at the time of the accident, was declared the winner. However, Jordan appealed, saying that Fisichella, after overtaking, managed to finish the lap with the leader before the stop took effect. The International Automobile Federation revised the race results and swapped Raikkonen and Fisichella, giving the Italian victory. A number of observers regarded this as a “symmetrical response” to the leadership of the Indikar series , which less than a year before in a similar situation deprived Paul Tracy of a well-deserved victory in the Indy 500 . The judges of Formula 1 have shown their impartiality, but this decision was criticized.

The last two years, the team struggled for survival, having rolled down to the last lines of the tournament table and the starting field. Only at the scandalous US Grand Prix in 2005, the team smiled again paradoxical luck: due to defects in Michelin tires, two-thirds of the teams withdrew from the race, and the Jordan pilots, the debutants of Tiago Monteiro and Narain Kartikeyan, took third and fourth places from six participating, losing to two Ferrari and ahead of two Minardi .

At the beginning of the same year, it became known about the purchase of Jordan by the Russian company Midland . Under this name, the team spent the 2006 season before being resold to the Dutch company Spiker .

• The abbreviation for the title sponsor of Jordan, Benson & Hedges - B&H - has been used by the team for various advertising purposes and jokes. For example, in 1997 at those grand prix where tobacco advertising was banned, the Bitten & Hisses inscription (“bites and hisses”, a hint of a snake on the nose of a car) appeared on the site of the sponsor’s logo, and since 1998 - Buzzin & Hornets (“ buzzing & hornets ”). Introducing the 1999 car, Eddie Jordan dubbed it Better & Harder (“Better and cooler”). Also used the abbreviation "Be On Edge" - Be on the verge (from " Be ns On & H Edge s").
• Of the four races won by the Jordan pilots, three took place under heavy rain. When, after Frentzen won the 1999 French Grand Prix, Eddie Jordan was asked in an interview what his plans were for the next race, he replied: “Rain, and as much as possible!”