'I had my first F1 car and no money': Eddie recalls birth of Jordan 191 — 30 years on

“John was a good friend and a great soundboard. I could always ask him some questions,” says Jordan, “Wattie is Wattie. He and I wouldn’t necessarily agree with all things, but I’d always value his opinion.”

Watson, a veteran of 154 grand prix and 5 victories, was impressed with the car’s simplicity.

“The 191 was very easy to get to the performance threshold – it had good grip,” he says. “You could, in a very broad brushstroke, say it was a F3000 car on steroids. Or conversely if Gary and the team designed a F3000 car, they would’ve built something probably similar to the car that became the Jordan 191.

“There were a lot of clever engineering and design features within the car. They ran quite large tunnels at the rear diffusers. The neat gearbox package gave the car a very good centre of gravity and weight distribution – it had a very good aero balance as well.

“And of course, there was the lovely little compact Cosworth engine. Some of the other cars of the day used V12 Hondas or Lamborghinis: big old donkeys! Heavier engines, harder to install, harder to control the height and centre of gravity.

“What the Cosworth engine enabled Gary and the team to do was to build a pretty impressive car for a first time, from a group of people that have never designed a Formula 1 car in their lives!”

Jordan and co realised straightaway what promise it had.

“As soon as the car hits the track on the first day, you have a very good idea of what it’s going to be like,” Jordan says. “Sometimes it has inherent problems, and sometimes you can dial them out. But if the car works and works straight away, you can then make improvements and make it better.

“When John drove the car he said “Pff! It’s just so easy to drive!”

A good car then, but no money to run it with. Jordan had run yellow F3000 Reynards sponsored by Camel and the intention on both sides had been to carry this on as an F1 title sponsorship. But Benetton had other ideas, taking the deal from under Jordan noses. “I said ‘We’re dead! We’re brown bread!” Eddie recalls. “I can’t possibly survive this!’ We had absolutely no money.”

As so often with the Jordan team throughout its F1 tenure, a lifeline presented itself. Through his Marlboro associate Paul Adams, Jordan was invited to speak at a conference of 600 Pepsico executives in an attempt to woo the company into sponsoring his team with one of its brands. Jordan was hopeful of snagging 7 UP but the cause looked hopeless.

“Paul said to everybody congregated in the assembly ‘We wish Eddie very good luck, but as you know, we need everyone here to get behind the Michael Jackson tour for the next two years. This is the biggest world tour that’s ever been done.’

“I was at Phoenix for the first race of the year,” remembers Watson, “Eddie was sh*tting rocks, because he had put everything he had into this team. The team were mandatorily having to go through pre-qualifying up until mid-season – an unbelievable additional pressure on top of the normal pressures of being in Formula 1.”

“The main problem was in pre-qualifying at 8am [on a cool track], the Pirellis were always quicker,” says Jordan, “As the day went on, the Goodyears [used by Jordan] became better, they were certainly a better race tyre.”

Eight cars were vying for four places in the qualifying session. Jordan’s young charge Bertrand Gachot made it through and would go on to qualify 14 out of 30. Andrea De Cesaris just missed the cut after a gear selection error. It would be the last time a Jordan would fail to make it through pre-qualifying.

The team went on to have a triumphant first season. Double points finishes in Canada and Germany were topped off with a memorable F1 debut for one Michael Schumacher, standing in after Gachot had been incarcerated for assault – how Jordanesque.

The team finished fifth in the World Championship, demonstrating enough potential to convince oil company Sasol to offer the team sponsorship deal, securing its future for the next three years.

Although it had been a momentous first season, a year spent living on his wits had taken its toll on Jordan.

“It was just too stressful to say I enjoyed it,” he says. “Pre-qualifying was something you had to go through to realise how nerve-racking it was, trying to make the bank every time. I was on first-name terms with every bailiff in Northampton. But they were very good to me, because they would tell me when they would be coming. They’d say ‘Just make sure you don’t answer the door’.”

Somehow Eddie and his Jordan team made it through and became a mainstay in F1. They would go on to take numerous podiums, four wins and mount an unlikely title challenge in 1999, before Eddie sold the team on in 2005.

At the beginning of it all was the Jordan 191. An iconic car for a historic debut season.