Jordan Grand Prix
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 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 season. Later that same year, it was sold to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker, to become Spyker F1 for the season, and then sold again to become Force India in. 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 2025 the team competes as the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team.
History
Early history
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
Beginnings in F1 and becoming established midfield team (1991–1996)
Jordan's success in lower formulae inspired the creation of a Formula One programme for the 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 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 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.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.
File:Eddie Irvine 1995 Britain.jpg|thumb|left|Eddie Irvine driving for Jordan at the 1995 British Grand Prix.Barrichello and Irvine returned for the 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.
Jordan switched to full-works Peugeot power in after one season with McLaren team who switched to works Mercedes-Benz engines. During the Canadian Grand Prix that year, both Barrichello and Irvine finished on the podium, finishing second and third respectively. It was the highlight to an unspectacular but relatively solid year for Jordan, as they hung around mid-pack to finish 6th in the Championship.
When Irvine left in to become Michael Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari, Jordan replaced him with veteran Martin Brundle, the ex-Le Mans winner and World Sportscar Champion. The team failed to make the podium, but both drivers managed to score a string of fourth-place finishes as the team scored yet another 5th among the constructors. 1996 also saw the team adopt their bright-yellow colour scheme which would become their trademark.
Ascent in form (1997–1999)
saw the departure of both drivers from the previous year. Barrichello left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix, whilst Brundle became a Formula One commentator for ITV. Jordan replaced them with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who had raced for Minardi the previous year, and young Ralf Schumacher, Michael's brother. Again, the team finished 5th in the Championship, with Fisichella achieving two podium finishes. At Hockenheim, Fisichella had led the race, but lost out to Gerhard Berger before retiring when a puncture holed his car's radiator. The Italian's other highlight was scoring the fastest race lap at the Spanish Grand Prix. A lowlight of the season came in Argentina when Ralf Schumacher took out his Italian teammate during the race, which was tempered by Ralf's first podium.In, the team made its biggest signing as former World Champion Damon Hill, a graduate of Jordan's F3000 programme, replaced Fisichella. The team also replaced its Peugeots, which went to Prost, with Mugen Honda motors. Up to the halfway point of the season, Jordan had failed to score a single point due to reliability problems. At that point, they signed Mike Gascoyne from Tyrrell to bolster the technical team and long-standing technical director Gary Anderson resigned a few months after. Things improved greatly towards the end of the season and at that year's rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix in which only six cars finished, Hill earned Jordan their first ever Formula One win, which was also Hill's 22nd career Grand Prix victory. Ralf Schumacher sweetened the victory by finishing second. However, it was later revealed to be team orders – Schumacher had been ordered not to pass Hill. Angered by this, his brother Michael told Jordan that Ralf would never race for the team again and subsequently bought out his brother's contract for 2 million pounds, this satisfied Jordan due to the scandal and manner of Michael's own switch from Jordan to Benetton back in 1991. Hill finished 6th in the drivers' standings with Ralf 10th. Hill's last lap, last-corner move on Heinz-Harald Frentzen at Suzuka enabled him to finish the race in fourth and also earned Jordan fourth in the Constructors' Championship for 1998.
File:Heinz-Harald Frentzen 1999 Canada.jpg|thumb|right|The season was Jordan's most successful in F1, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen winning two races. The team finished third in the Constructors' Championship.
With Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher swapping teams for , the season would turn out to be a nightmare for Hill, who was to retire at the end of the season. However, Frentzen's season was immensely successful, with the German earning two victories and a pole position. For a short while Frentzen had entertained thoughts of a world title, but poor luck and greater speed from McLaren and Ferrari ended his hopes. Frentzen finished third in the Drivers' Championship and the team also finished third amongst the Constructors'. 1999 was to be the team's finest season.
Decline in form (2000–2002)
For Hill was replaced by Jarno Trulli, fresh from a couple of years at Prost and Minardi. His qualifying speed in particular impressed, but he was unable to score a podium. Frentzen was unable to replicate the success of 1999 and the team slipped back to 6th in the Constructors' Championship. The team had been on course for major points at Monaco, but poor luck intervened: Trulli was ahead of eventual winner David Coulthard until his gearbox failed, while Frentzen running in second place hit the wall at Sainte Devote with only eight laps to go. The 2000 season saw the team achieve just two podiums all season, two third places courtesy of Frentzen in Brazil and the United States.Both drivers returned to start and Jordan switched to works Honda engines which were already being supplied to rival team BAR after Mugen left the sport at the end of 2000. This led to a battle for the right to use the Honda engines in the long term. Frentzen was released from the team in mid-season, a series of disagreements with team boss Eddie Jordan a possible explanation. Jordan himself has said that he dropped Frentzen to bring in Takuma Sato for 2002, an attempt to satisfy Honda. Frentzen was replaced by test driver Ricardo Zonta at the German Grand Prix, but from thereafter Jean Alesi, in the final stages of his Formula One career, took the seat. Amidst all the turmoil, Trulli finished in the points four times, and the team finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship for the fifth time, ahead of rivals BAR but failed to score a single podium during a Grand Prix season for the first time since 1993.
File:Jordan GP 2002 sato.jpg|thumb|right|Takuma Sato driving for the Jordan Grand Prix team at Indianapolis in 2002.
Jordan re-organised in, with Fisichella returning and Takuma Sato joining the team, thanks in no small part to Honda's influence. Due to a drop in sponsorship money the team slipped down the pecking order on the grid. Fisichella often qualified well, a sixth place on the grid in Montreal and a fifth place on the grid in Budapest. Yet results-wise, the Italian had to make do with a trio of fifth places and a sixth place from Hungary. Sato showed flashes of promise, but managed just two points at his home race. Despite the drop in form, Jordan still managed sixth in the championship, two places ahead of main rivals BAR.