Jordan’s solid first year

Drivers Andrea de Cesaris and Alex Zanardi, team owner Eddie Jordan and the 7 Up-Jordan team pose next to the Jordan 191 designed by Gary Anderson, at the 1991 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide that closes the season (picture above). Here in Australia, the two Italians finished in 8th and 9th.

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, who had a brief stint as a race driver in F3 in the early 1980s, and was based at Silverstone, UK but raced under an Irish licence.

For the 1991 season, Jordan Grand Prix hired Italian Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian Bertrand Gachot to race its first cars, the Jordans 191, which were powered by Ford. The team had a very solid debut in F1, finishing 5th in the 1991 Constructors’ Championship, with de Cesaris, who could have won at Spa, but was denied by a broken engine (a too small oil tank), finishing 9th in the Drivers’ Championship.

After Gachot, who had three points-finishes, was sent to prison for attacking a London taxi driver, at mid-season, he was briefly replaced by Michael Schumacher, who made such a great impression at Spa, that he was instantly snatched by Benetton. Ousted Benetton driver Roberto Moreno and future Champ Car title winner Alessandro Zanardi (picture below) filled the second car afterwards.