EDDIE JORDAN elbowed his way into Formula One with a gift for Irish blarney, an eye for showbusiness and an overdraft of more than £1 million.
The most recent of the entrepreneurs to break through the golden gates into the Formula One paddock, Jordan is a former bank clerk who turned a homely team of enthusiasts working from a tatty garage into grand prix winners who attracted money like a magnet.
He had an eye for talent and signed up Michael Schumacher for the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. Money was so tight that they had to sleep in bunks in a cheap bed-and-breakfast.
When they arrived for Friday practice the garage had been locked by bailiffs. Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s billionaire impresario, lent Jordan the money to pay the bill and the team kept on racing. That generosity was Formula One’s gain because Jordan’s innovative approach helped him to attract new sponsors. Capturing Benson & Hedges in 1997 was the most important coup.
He established himself as the most charismatic of Formula One’s team owners, a drum-playing, fast-talker who counts Bono of U2 as a friend, drinks with Bob Geldof and Van Morrison, talks football with Sir Alex Ferguson and owns shares in his beloved Celtic Football Club. A yacht and home in Spain were the trophies from deals he made on his way to a personal fortune estimated at £60 million.
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His globe-trotting lifestyle has been punctuated by charity bike rides and his deep love of sport. One of his favourite possessions is a pair of sunglasses given to him by Lance Armstrong, the five-time Tour de France winner, and his friends include the former top jockey Richard Dunwoody.
He has homes in Oxford, London and Spain, where he indulges his passion for golf along with Marie, his wife, a former Irish basketball international. They have three children. But last night there were no parties in the huge Jordan motorhomes, where guests were due to drink fine wines and eat canapés before the start of the German Grand Prix. Instead, the usually ebullient team owner was in a tense mood as he tried to absorb the ramifications of his showdown with Vodafone.
Jordan, 55, has bounced back before, but many are now asking whether this was a deal too far. Paying the bills has become an increasing concern as sponsors have deserted him and the showman has been left without an audience for his talent for charming big business into handing over fat cheques. Even Giancarlo Fisichella, his star driver, is reported to have been told he can expect only half his £5 million salary this year.
Jordan’s court action against Vodafone might yet prove to be a costly mistake that not even Mr Ecclestone can fix. The Formula One boss is known to have counselled Jordan not to go ahead with his £150 million claim, but Mr Jordan appeared to be hell-bent on revenge after Vodafone rejected his team for Ferrari.
Vodafone wanted success, and that is something in short supply at Jordan’s factory, over the road from the front gates of the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire.
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From being third in the world championship in 1999, Jordan is now the second worst-funded team in Formula One and that has showed on track. Its year has been brightened only by a shock victory for Fisichella in Brazil, which owed more to luck, heavy rain and spectacular crashes than having a wonderful car.
But the entrepreneurial instinct drives Jordan on and while lawyers were doing battle in the High Court and the rest of Formula One set off for Germany this week, he had flown to China to find new sponsors. If he finds just one big one, the Vodafone expenses will be quickly forgotten.