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The Paddock
2 0 0 0 t e a m s
5 + 6  |
  Benson and Hedges Jordan |
| Formula One record: [1-1-2000] |
| Starts |
146 |
| Poles |
2 (Belgium 1994: Rubens Barrichello, Europe 1999: Heinz-Harald Frentzen) |
| Wins |
3 (Belgium 1998: Damon Hill; France and Italy 1999: Frentzen). |
| Constructors' titles |
none |
| Drivers' titles |
none |
| 1999 season: |
| Third place overall, 61 points (Heinz-Harald Frentzen/Damon Hill) |
first x2, second x1, third x3, fourth x6, fifth x1, sixth x3, seventh x1, eighth x1, 10th x1, 11th x1, Retired x12. |
| History: |
| 1980 |
Eddie Jordan Racing founded. |
| 1987 |
Won British Formula Three title with Johnny Herbert. |
| 1989 |
Won International F3000 title with Jean Alesi. |
| 1990 |
Founded Jordan Grand Prix. |
| 1991 |
First season in Formula One. Ford engines |
| 1992 |
Yamaha engines |
| 1993 |
Hart engines |
| 1995 |
Peugeot engines |
| 1998 |
Mugen-Honda engines, first win in Belgium, Hill-Ralf Schumacher one-two. |
| 1999 |
best season to date, finishing third. |
| Season by season: (year, standing, points, wins) |
| 1991 |
fifth, 13 points (Bertrand Gachot/Andrea de Cesaris/Michael Schumacher/Roberto Moreno/Alex Zanardi) |
| 1992 |
11th, 1 (Mauricio Gugelmin/Stefano Modena) |
| 1993 |
10th equal, 3 (Ivan Capelli/Rubens Barrichello/Thierry Boutsen/Marco Apicella/Emanuele Naspetti/Eddie Irvine) |
| 1994 |
fifth, 28 (Barrichello/Irvine/Aguri Suzuki/De Cesaris) |
| 1995 |
sixth, 21 (Barrichello/Irvine) |
| 1996 |
fifth, 22 (Barrichello/Martin Brundle) |
| 1997 |
fifth, 33 (Giancarlo Fisichella/Ralf Schumacher) |
| 1998 |
fourth, 34 (Damon Hill/Ralf Schumacher) |
| Prospects for the 2000 season: |
 Jordan EJ10, powered by Mugen-Honda MF-301 HE V10. |
| The team are celebrating their 10th season in Formula One with their highest-ever ranking and plenty of confidence for the future. Eddie Jordan's team are now nipping at the heels of McLaren and Ferrari and hoping for more victories. "We're going to cause a lot of upsets this year with the big two," Jordan says. The front suspension of the car has a new layout as does the gearbox, which is lighter than last year. Damon Hill has retired, replaced by Italian Jarno Trulli. |
| Drivers: |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen  |
| Aged 32, Germany |
| Races 97, wins 3, pole positions 2. podium finishes 15 points to date: 142 |
| 1999 record |
Jordan, third with 54 points - first x2, second x1, third x3, fourth x5, sixth x1, 11th x1, retired x3. |
| Family runs an undertakers' business in Moenchengladbach. His mother is Spanish. Frentzen was the revelation of last season and he consistently outqualified and outraced his team mate Damon Hill.
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 the year 2000 sees Hill retired and Jarno Trulli as Heinz's new partner.
[More] |
Jarno Trulli  |
| Aged 25, Italy |
| Races 44, wins 0, poles 0, points to date 11 |
| 1999 record |
Prost. 11th. Seven points - second x1, sixth x1, seventh x3, eighth x1, ninth x1, 12th x1, retired x7, did not start x1. |
| Named after the late Finnish motorcycle world champion Jarno Saarinen, Trulli is not a typical Italian. When he first entered Formula One, many Italians thought he was a Finn. Trulli has a glowing reputation and Eddie Jordan, after signing him from Prost as Hill's replacement, described him as his "jewel in the crown".
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.
[More] |
| Jordon in 2000: |
Jordan is one of the newest teams on the Formula One block, but it has come a long way in the short time since its 1991 debut.
It has come so far, in fact, that it is now regularly spoken of as a serious contender for race wins, although few observers - as yet - are prepared to regard Eddie Jordan's team as a genuine title prospect.
While most of the racing world's attention is focused on the battle at the front of the grid between Ferrari and McLaren, there is an equally competitive tussle taking place between the second-tier squads.
Last year Jordan proved in no uncertain fashion that it was the pick of that bunch with a series of consistent runs (including a couple of race wins) by its lead driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who joined the Irish-owned team at the beginning of last season as a disaffected refugee from Williams.
Race watchers have always known that Frentzen was quick and had huge natural ability, but he found it hard to fit in to the exacting environment at Williams. The switch to the Jordan outfit, where by all accounts he found the organisational culture easier to cope with, was a great move for the German, who shifted up a gear with a series of eye-catching drives. At one point late in the season he even looked like a serious chance for the championship as Mika Hakkinen and McLaren continued to make mistakes.
That Jordan could score so well was a tremendous achievement, given that Frentzen was effectively the team's only driver.
Damon Hill, his Jordan partner, put in a number of poor performances, and then strung out his "Will I? Won't I?" retirement farce for weeks. At first he was going to quit mid-year. Then he was going to race in the British Grand Prix and walk away. He finally decided to press on until the end of the season, but his heart wasn't in it and he did nothing on the track to enhance his reputation. While Hill will always be remembered at Jordan as the driver who gave the team its first Grand Prix victory - at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium on a wet afternoon in 1998 - much of the good will between the team's founder and the former world champion driver evaporated during the season. When Jordan was the subject of a This Is Your Life program on British television, Hill refused to take part.
This year there are high hopes in the Jordan camp that its new car, the EJ10, will be an improvement on last year's impressive 199. The car will be driven by a developed version of the Mugen Honda V10 engine.
Last year, as technical director Mike Gascoyne pointed out in a magazine interview, the Jordan vehicle managed to finish the season with a speed that was about half a second per lap slower than a McLaren - a significant achievement given that it started the year more than a second per lap down on the category's benchmark car.
Of course, other teams are also improving, not the least the two leaders. If Jordan can beat the best of the rest by a bigger margin this season, win a few more races and finish closer to McLaren and Ferrari, then it will have achieved most of what it set out to do.
It will be looking for much more input from its second driver this time round, and the F1 world is pretty confident that it will get it from the man in question, Jarno Trulli.
It was known long before the end of last season that the young Italian would be leaving Prost and joining the yellow-liveried Jordan team. At the launch of the new car last month, Eddie Jordan professed his faith in the 25-year-old, saying: "From the testing that we have seen so far, he's going to push Heinz-Harald. I think he will be the surprise package of this year, just like Heinz-Harald was last year."
Frentzen added: "We want to start where we finished last year. It's going to be very thin air at the top with McLaren and Ferrari but we are confident that we have learned."
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