F1 designer would have ‘probably’ fought Eddie Jordan to keep 11-time winner from joining McLaren

Follow us on Google Discover

Former Formula 1 designer Gary Anderson has suggested he would have had to fight Eddie Jordan to keep Brazilian star Rubens Barrichello leaving the team to join McLaren.

Jordan were one of the surprise packages in the early 1990s when they entered the sport but struggled to regularly compete with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren.

Speaking on the Bring Back V10s Podcast, Anderson has outlined what was happening behind the scenes in 1994.

It was a year that will never be forgotten in Formula after the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola.

The tragic events of that season triggered plenty of sudden changes to race tracks to attempt to make circuits safer.

Brazil has always had a huge connection to motorsport and Formula 1 in particular and it could be argued the loss of Senna is still being felt today.

It meant that the pressure of representing the country was shifted onto their other drivers and one of those was a young Rubens Barrichello.

Barrichello joined Jordan in 1993 but just over a year later, he was suddenly being linked with a move to McLaren.

Freeman has admitted that he was a huge fan of working with him and immediately recognised his talent.

However, Jordan was always a canny operator in F1 and if he sensed an opportunity to make some important cash for the team, he would have taken it.

Anderson would have fought Jordan to stop Barrichello joining McLaren

Journalist Glenn Freeman asked Anderson: “Gary, did this one get as far as being on your radar within Jordan, was there serious interest from McLaren and knowing how fond you were and are of Rubens [Barrichello], would you have had to fight Eddie [Jordan] to try and keep him?”

Anderson replied: “Probably because of the buy-out clause if that had come to fruition.

“It was one of those situations where I suppose in 1994, Rubens had just sort of come of age.

“He had done the year before, he had gone through his learning curve, and he had shown at Donnington his talent and in quite a few races.

“But he never really got to the front end because the car wasn’t good enough, we were fighting budgets, we were trying to exist basically.

“So, 1994 was the first time he had a car that was worthy of his talents, so he was just showing his true worth and showing it very, very well.

“Obviously, Imola had a big impact because of his accident and because of Ayrton Senna’s death and that sort of hurt him for a while.

“But at the end of the day, Ron [Dennis] was always looking for the next up-and-coming driver, the next up-and-coming Ayrton Senna because that’s what he wanted and in Barrichello, that was true.

“Yes, it was always on the radar that he would disappear off somewhere else and it was one of those situations when we never really knew when.

“Eddie handled all that stuff, he knew what we needed in a driver, he knew we got on very well with Rubens.

“We just got on with our job, Eddie got on with his job to keep us alive and Barrichello was one of the bargaining factors in the midst of that I suppose.”

Barrichello stayed in 1994 before enjoying success elsewhere

Jordan didn’t have to worry about losing Barrichello to McLaren ahead of the 1995 season in the end, as Martin Brundle was replaced by Mark Blundell in the end.

He stayed with the team until the end of the 1996 season before joining Stewart and then after a stellar 1999 campaign joined up with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

Barrichello became arguably the greatest number two driver in F1 history, supporting the German as he and Ferrari dominated the sport in the early 2000s.

The Brazilian would go on to win 11 races himself, with his final two victories coming during his only season with Brawn GP as they won a historic title.

The 52-year-old eventually retired from Formula 1 in 2011 after a spell with Williams, but still races today in the Stock Car Pro Series.