Eddie Jordan says he offered racing legend 50% of his Formula 1 team for free

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Eddie Jordan has admitted that the only driver he ever considered going into business with to help run his Formula 1 team was the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Jordan was speaking to David Coulthard on the Formula For Success Podcast.

For 15 years, the iconic bright yellow of Jordan Grand Prix was a permanent fixture on the grid.

In 1991, Eddie Jordan brought Bertrand Gachot and Andrea de Cesaris to the United States Grand Prix in Phoenix and that was the beginning of a racing dynasty.

Back then, only the top six drivers scored points each race and yet they still managed to finish 5^th during their debut season when more than 30 drivers were trying to qualify at each Grand Prix.

Jordan had plenty of fantastic drivers during their time in Formula 1 including Rubens Barrichello, Damon Hill and a certain Michael Schumacher.

The team recorded four wins during their time in Formula 1 before becoming MF1 Racing in 2006, but Jordan had ambitious plans for the team that included Ayrton Senna when he first entered the sport.

Although the legendary Brazilian never raced for Jordan in F1 that might have changed were it up to the Irishman.

Not only did he recognise his incredible talent on the track, but he wondered if he may be able to have an even bigger impact behind the scenes.

Jordan wanted to give half his F1 team to Senna

Speaking about whether he would have ever thought about going into business with any of his drivers, Jordan said: “It was Ayrton [Senna], he was the only one that I would ever think about.

Coulthard replied: “He was the only one you would ever think about giving a slice of your team to?”

Jordan went on to explain: “I offered him 50%. I never lost touch with him and he was that kind of person, he always wanted to know who was doing what, what’s happening with your children, where are they going.

“And I suddenly realised as a business guy because fundamentally that was in my mind, I felt how am I going to win Grand Prix? How am I going to better the team generally?

“Do I need 100% of this team because we set the target Marie [Jordan] and I that we shouldn’t have partners because that only causes me problems or headaches or whatever?

“So whatever we can do on our own is the best we can do. However, Ayrton was a different example and I went to him, he was very clearly unhappy about some of the things that were happening in some of the teams and eventually, I said to him, ‘Look, why don’t you consider owning and running a team, take over from me because this will be a magic situation’.

“At that stage, he had just brought me [Rubens] Barrichello so we had huge influence in Brazil and the ability of bringing cash.

“So I offered him free of charge 50% of Jordan Grand Prix, which at the time was quite a significant amount of money really but on condition that he would drive for the next two years and he would bring enough money to fund it for that time.

“We were in that particular discussion in 1994 at the beginning of the season and we know what happened at Williams, extraordinarily sad for all sorts of things.

“Would it of ever happened? Who’s to know, we don’t know. It was very close in terms of agreeing figures, agreeing structure, who would do what, would I run the team until he was ready to do so, so that’s Ayrton.

“It was extremely sad what happened at that particular weekend at Imola in 1994.”

Senna’s legacy will remain forever in Formula 1

While Jordan never got to work alongside Senna within his racing team, the Brazilian is still well-regarded as one of the sport’s finest drivers.

He recorded a podium in virtually every other race he took part in, achieving 40 wins on the way to winning three World Championships.

Senna competed against incredible drivers like Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost to name a few.

It speaks volumes that his fellow countryman Felipe Drugovich compared the hysteria we see in the Netherlands around Max Verstappen to the fandom he enjoyed in his home country.

Senna was destined to play a role in Formula 1 for a very long time had the incredibly sad events of that weekend in Imola not taken place.

After plenty of takeovers and name changes, Jordan still exists on the grid in the form of Aston Martin.

It’s now up to Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to build on what Jordan started all the way back in 1991.