Eddie Jordan is the last of a breed. The maverick, wheeling and dealing, entrepreneurial team boss is dying out in the new corporate age of F1, but EJ still rules his team by sheer force of personality. The story of Jordan Grand Prix began in Birmingham in 1987 when Eddie Jordan approached a little-known engineer called Gary Anderson to ask him if he's think about designing an F1 car.

That year Eddie Jordan Racing won the British Formula 3 championship with Johnny Herbert, this was followed two years later by Jean Alesi's victory in the Intercontinental F3000 championship. After these prestigious victories Jordan was ready for F1 and in the winter of 1990 the Anderson-penned 191was ready to go.

Money was tight in that first season, but luckily for Jordan the performance of the 191 exceeded all expectations. The team scored a stack of points as well as giving a little-known German named Michael Schumacher his first F1 drives in the Belgium Grand Prix.
However, despite this success the team still ended up owing engine-builder Cosworth £4million at the end of that first year.

1992 brought a disastrous association with Yamaha, who saddled Jordan with an uncompetitive V12 lump. The season yielded only 1 point and the team was back to square one after its promising debut season. The points started to flow again in 1994 as Barrichello and Irvine found their feet. The Brazilian also put the team well and truly on the map for the first time by scoring Jordan's first pole position in Spa.

A link-up with Peugeot was forged for the season after although the alliance with the French manufacturer didn't bring the hoped for results. Irvine left for Ferrari at the end of '95 and Barrichello departed for Stewart a year later. The team began 1997 with the exciting young driver line-up of Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher. The team had a competitive car in the 197 although the driver's lack of experience sometimes masked it's potential.

Mugen-Honda and Damon Hill joined the team for the year after and Jordan began to make the climb towards being one of F1's heavy hitters. After a pointless first half of the season the team underwent a transformation at Silverstone, were Ralf Schumacher racked up Jordan's first points of the year. From that turning point the momentum built and the team finally scored a first grand prix victory in the Belgium Grand Prix. Damon Hill drove a brilliant race in the wet and led home Ralf Schumacher to record a memorable and historic 1-2.

Jordan continued their upward trajectory last season with Heinz-Harald Frentzen taking victories in the French and Italian Grand Prix, and taking third place in the drivers' championship. Jordan go into 2000 as the team expected to push McLaren and Ferrari the hardest for top-honours. An achievement that Eddie Jordan should look back on with pride.