�

Eddie Jordan formed his own team, Eddie Jordan Racing, in 1982 after becoming the Irish Formula Atlantic Champion and shinning in Formula Three. In 1983, with Martin Brundle behind the wheel, he came close to taking the Formula Three Cup after a season long battle with Ayrton Senna, but the teams first title victory was given to them in 1987 by an excellent season from Johnny Herbert.

Both the team and Herbert moved to Formula 3000 the following year, but unfortunately Herbert was severely injured at a race in Brands Hatch. Eddie has always been one to give up and coming talent a chance to drive and the following year he signed Jean Alesi who had been through a bad season in Formula Three. Alesi repaid him by winning the championship in 1989, putting both the team and the driver on a very firm footing. He changed the team name to Jordan Grand Prix, and took the plunge into Formula One racing in 1991. Bertrand Gachot and Andrea de Cesaris were the first drivers for the Formula One team, but the season was badly disrupted after an incident caused by Gachot ended in a jail sentence. He sprayed CS gas into a taxi drivers' face after an altercation at London's Hyde Park Corner on his way to a press conference.

This is when Eddie Jordan gave another young driver a chance and unleashed a powerful force into the world of Formula One. Michael Schumacher drove for the team in the Belgian Grand Prix, but sadly, Eddie couldn't hold onto this man that showed such great potential as Benetton spirited him away before the next race on the calendar, something that left Eddie Jordan fuming. Eddie ran with Ford HB engines in 91, and was regularly giving Benetton a run for their money, but the team didn't have a guarantee of a top spec engine for the 1992 season, so they signed a deal with Yamaha.

This proved to be a disastrous move, and the agreement was severed. 1993 saw the arrival of Rubens Barrichello and Brian Harts' new V10 engine. Rubens had many teammates that season before Eddie ran a young Irishman by the name of Eddie Irvine for the Japanese Grand Prix. The two drivers remained teammates for the 1994 season, even though Irvine made a bad reputation for himself after an incident he allegedly caused in Brazil, causing a three-race ban for the young Irishman. Rubens went on to finish 6th in the drivers Championship and gave Eddie Jordan his first podium finish when he came third in the Pacific Grand Prix. He also gave the Jordan team its first pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix in the same year, but unfortunately spun off the track after 19 laps.

The Jordan team began to stand out behind the big four of Williams, Benetton, McLaren and Ferrari, and due to this, the team was offered a three-year deal with Peugeot. Things looked very promising with strong qualifying performances, but reliability, or the lack there of, was the major downfall and the team began to falter.

In 1997, Gary Anderson designed a good chassis and Eddie signed two up and coming new stars, Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher. Although they were both fast, their inexperience shone through in many ways. The younger Schumacher even pushed his teammate off the circuit as they fought over second place in the Argentinean Grand Prix. Fisichella led the German Grand Prix for some time and finished the race in second place, with Ralf scoring points in the second half of the season as well ensuring the team finished up fifth overall for the season.

In 1998, Jordan opted for experience rather than youth and signed the 1996 World Champion, Damon Hill. The team hoped that his testing ability would make a great deal of difference and his demeanour would act as a calming influence on the young Ralf Schumacher. This driver combination added to the new Mugen Honda engines would put Jordan well into the top 4. Damon Hill gave Eddie his first team win at Belgium of 98. Damon and Ralf raced through the horrendous conditions and finished one two, not only giving Jordan it's maiden victory, but made F1 history for the team by celebrating that victory with a one two finish.

The team was growing in status, and Eddie's goal for the 99 season was to finish ahead of Williams in the constructor's title. Third was all the Irishman wanted. His wish was fulfilled as Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who replaced Ralf Schumacher, won another three races for the team and had many point scoring finishes. Sadly, by this stage, Damon Hill had lost all passion for the sport he once loved so dearly, and Heinz brought the Jordan team to third, basically all alone. Not only did Eddie have that wish fulfilled, but he also came close to having a driver win the coveted driver's crown as well. Up until the third last race of the 99 season, Heinz was in with a real chance of victory.

Unfortunately, instead of progressing as they had wanted to, 2000 saw the team slip back don the grid, finally finishes 6th overall after being plagued with reliability problems all season. They decided at the beginning of the year to go with speed rather than performance in the hope of catching the leading two teams. This decision backfired but they have put it all behind them and head into 2001 with Honda engines and hope to dramatically improve on last seasons standings.

Heinz-Harald graduated from karts with the title, to move to Formula Ford 2000 in 1985, but was promoted to Formula Opel in 1988, winning the German title before entering the GM Euroseries late in the season. He was runner up in the 1989 German Formula Three series, then he moved into sports cars with the Mercedes junior team, while at the same time driving in Formula 3000 for Eddie Jordan Racing.

He didn't debut in Formula One until 1994 with the Sauber team, and his best finish was a fourth in the French Grand Prix. In 1995, he drove a superb race, coming third in Monza, in a car that was well below the competition. 1996 proved fruitless for him, and he was signed by the Williams team to replace Damon Hill for the 97 season.

Partnering Jacques Villeneuve, he won the fourth race of the season, at Imola, but that was to be his one and only victory for Williams. Plagued with mechanical failures, and a fast teammate, he finished third overall for the season, but was then moved to second when Michael Schumacher had his second place stripped from him by the FIA.

The Williams team changed engines for the 98 season, and their Mecachrome just wasn't up to the speed of the dominant Mercedes. Achieving only one podium finish, a third in Australia, he finished the season equal with Alexander Wurz on 17 points, in 7th place.

Signing with Jordan for the 99 season appears to have been the key to his success. Fitting into the team with ease, he has flourished, giving the team and himself, a second win, in France. This win was extraordinary in the fact that he drove and won while suffering fractured knees from an accident in Canada, two weeks earlier. He continued to score consistent points and even another win and with only three races left in the season, he was in contention for the title. Although he didn't win the illustrious crown, he came third and at the same time gave Eddie Jordan third in the Constructors championship.

He outpaced his World Champion teammate, Damon Hill all season and 2000 saw the 1996 champion retiring, his empty seat taken by Italian driver, Jarno Trulli. Together the du had hoped to retain that their place Heinz had fought so hard to achieve, however constant reliability problems saw them drop back to sixth in the constructors championship with Heinz finishing ninth in the drivers battle.

Now with the addition of works Honda engines for 2001, Heinz-Harald is hoping that he will be back at the front of the grid again, fighting to reclaim the positions lost last year.

Jarno won many World and Italian kart titles and Benetton boss, Flavio Briatore paid for him to enter into German Formula Three midway through 1995, where he won the remaining two races of the season for the KMS team.

Continuing on the same way in 1996, he easily took the title. His Formula One debut came in 1997, when once again, Flavio Briatore stepped in. Tarso Marques, the driver for Minardi was to be replaced, and Jarno took the drive. Racing in Australia, he finished 9th after starting from 17th on the grid, but the season was hampered by mechanical failure, and lack of power.

Marques returned for the French Grand Prix, and Jarno moved to Prost, after Olivier Panis was injured at Montreal. He finished fourth in the German Grand prix, and shocked everyone by leading for more than half the race at Austria before his engine blew. He signed for Prost in 1998, and his best finish was sixth in Belgium.

The 99 season didn't see him fare much better although towards the end of the season there were some strong qualifying performances. Sadly, the engines' unreliability stopped him from proving what was so evident, that he had the talent, drive and passion that is necessary to succeed.

Eddie Jordan could see this and signed the young Italian to replace the retiring Damon Hill to partner Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the 2000 season. Here he put in some very strong drives, the only other driver that wasn�t in a McLaren or a Ferrari to take a front row grid position throughout the entire year. However due to incidents involving other drivers or reliability problems with the EJ10,Jarno just couldn�t manage to turn theses strong starts into point scoring finishes.

The 2001 championship is almost upon us and hopefully it will bring some good opportunities for Jarno to finally show the talent everyone knows he has.