The F1 podium-finisher that gave Jordan stability in a year of chaos

After a brilliant, giant-killing maiden season in Formula 1, Eddie Jordan’s eponymous team slipped to the tail of the field and survived several brushes with bankruptcy. Gary Anderson and his tight-knit group of talented engineers hadn’t forgotten how to design a competitive car and the svelte, agile Jordan 191 hadn’t been a fluke – but Formula 1 technology was rocketing away from Jordan’s meagre financial means. 1994 would provide a turnaround of sorts.

This was the benighted season in which the late Max Mosley’s FIA strove to rid F1 of the electronic systems which had elevated car speeds to potentially dangerous levels and dialled driver skills down in the performance mix. Among the measures was a sentence which remains in the rulebook to this day: “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.”

There was an unintended – and worrying – consequence of banning traction control and launch control, and particularly active suspension systems. The majority of the leading teams were well down aerodynamic development paths which relied upon the stable platform granted by active suspension. Shorn of these they produced less consistent downforce and were inherently less predictable to drive.

This is not to imply a clear cause-effect relationship between the rule change and the accidents, two fatal, which scarred that year. In his autobiography Mosley, with typical patrician hauteur, pooh-poohed this notion as “a classic post hoc point” and “an intensely stupid inference”.

But the change did expose cars with pitch-sensitive aero and several drivers (Ayrton Senna included) did complain about their edgier behaviour. Teams such as Jordan, which hadn’t the funds to invest in sophisticated electronic systems during the arms race of the early 1990s – it used off-the-shelf Lucas traction control in ’93 – were less affected by the change.

For Eddie Jordan, one of F1’s pre-eminent duckers and divers, simply getting cars to the grid had been an achievement from his team’s first season onwards. He’d struggled to pay the Cosworth engine bills – although a suitcase full of Mercedes cash for giving Michael Schumacher his debut helped with that – but a necessary move to free Yamaha V12 engines for 1992 caused long-term pain. The car had to be physically longer to accommodate the larger engine, both reliability and power were poor (driver Stefano Modena likened the Yamaha to a sewing machine), and the lack of results meant less income via the team’s share of commercial revenues.

Eddie Jordan (pictured with John Walton) had picked Hart engines for 1993 that helped reverse his team's downward slide

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The ‘free’ engine therefore proved very costly. At the 1992 San Marino Grand Prix – race five – where Modena qualified 23rd out of 30 and team-mate Mauricio Gugelmin 18th, Anderson had a useful encounter with an old acquaintance over a glass of wine.

Brian Hart, an engine builder with a Jordan-like reputation for making scant resources go a long way, was incubating a new project. Much of his business in recent years had come from supplying customers with tuned Cosworth DFRs, a line of work which had declined when the HB V8 came on stream. Now he’d built a 3.5-litre V10 of his own design, but which now required a customer for Hart to progress to the manufacturing and onward development stages.

Anderson and Jordan visited Hart Racing Engines in Harlow, liked what they saw, and did a deal. Given Jordan’s financial status, the funds available barely stretched to a production run. Hart had to slim down his company to make the programme – just about – viable.

Despite a revolving cast of paying drivers in the second car, a chassis built up from the ’92 tub, and little testing, the 1993 Jordan-Hart 193 ran more competitively and notched up two points finishes as opposed to one… and just a single DNQ (Ivan Capelli’s career-ending failure to make the grid in Brazil) compared with four in 1992.

Barrichello was classically Jackie Stewart-like in his flowing style, but trying (unsuccessfully) to adapt to left-foot braking, which was becoming de rigueur in the semi-automatic gearbox era; Irvine was more reactive, happy to live with a stiffly sprung and edgy car if that’s where he sensed the laptime was

New recruit Rubens Barrichello, who had beaten Williams test driver David Coulthard to the 1991 British Formula 3 championship, had all the hallmarks of a future star. For the European Grand Prix at Donington he qualified 12th and was fourth at the end of a sodden opening lap, though unfortunately most eyes were on Senna’s heroics at the very front; Barrichello was running third when his fuel pressure dropped off.

Besides various reliability issues, what held the 193 back was its tendency to overwork its tyres on race day. For the 194 Anderson lengthened the wheelbase by 145mm and persuaded Hart to lower and lighten the V10. As well as detail changes around the sidepods and engine cover, the car featured a noticeably different nose treatment from its predecessor, which had featured a flat main plane under a raised nose. The 194’s swoopier twin-plane arrangement harked back to the first two Jordan F1 designs.

For the 1994 season Barrichello was partnered again with Eddie Irvine, who had joined the team for the previous season’s Japanese Grand Prix – where he incurred the ire of Senna for having the cheek to unlap himself. Those who worked with Irvine tend to describe him as “a character”. The relationship with Barrichello, never warm, would become sporadically confrontational come season’s end.

Irvine was retained for 1994, but his season got off to a bad start when he was banned after a crash in Brazil

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These two individuals were close neither in temperament nor style: Barrichello was classically Jackie Stewart-like in his flowing style, but trying (unsuccessfully) to adapt to left-foot braking, which was becoming de rigueur in the semi-automatic gearbox era; Irvine was more reactive, happy to live with a stiffly sprung and edgy car if that’s where he sensed the laptime was.

For Jordan this was a disrupted season from the off. While Barrichello finished fourth on home soil in the season opener, albeit a lap down, Irvine earned himself a one-race ban for his part in what became a four-car shunt at half distance.

Benetton’s Jos Verstappen pulled out to pass Irvine as they bore down on the Ligier of Eric Bernard: Irvine swerved left to clear the Ligier as Verstappen was alongside, obliging the Dutchman to react by moving further over; and then Bernard also moved left to avoid Martin Brundle’s McLaren, which was slowing abruptly owing to an engine failure. This put Verstappen on the grass and tipped him into a spin which took out all three cars, and Brundle took a bang on the head from the Benetton’s right-rear wheel.

There were several different inputs into this accident but Irvine was already cultivating a bad-boy reputation in the paddock after his altercation with Senna. Thus he was made an example of and, when the team appealed, his ban was extended to three rounds. This was Mosley sending out a signal that he would not tolerate dissent in the ranks. 

At the Pacific GP which followed Aguri Suzuki took Irvine’s seat and Rubens claimed his first podium from eighth on the grid. This being two-tier F1, the gap to the two cars ahead was a full lap and Barrichello’s cause was aided by Senna being taken out by Mika Hakkinen, but it was another encouraging result for Jordan. By now innuendo was circulating to the effect that some teams were still using either traction control or launch control, or both, but nothing had been proved.

Then came that bleak weekend at Imola where Roland Ratzenberger and Senna lost their lives and Barrichello struck the barriers in practice – hard enough to swallow his own tongue. Remarkably he was able to return to the cockpit in time for Monaco, where another severe accident – this time for Karl Wendlinger in a Sauber – brought yet more questions about F1’s safety.

In the wake of Senna’s death, Mosley had moved to slow cars down and install measures to make tracks safer. The first stage of these changes was implemented in Spain, where the cars had smaller diffusers and front-wing endplates. Later in the season engine power would be reduced by the rather crude method of cutting slots in the airbox and ride heights would be controlled by the addition of the underfloor plank which persists to this day.

Senna's death at Imola brought sweeping changes to the cars, and Jordan became stronger as the year went on

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At Barcelona Barrichello squandered a fifth-placed grid position by spinning off but the returning Irvine was sixth from 13th on the grid. The Jordan drivers continued to score points but in Hungary contrived to hit each other on the first lap after qualifying inside the top 10, losing the opportunity to register what could have been a double points finish.

A fortnight later the Belgian weather cycled through its usual menu of unpredictability at Spa. F1 qualifying was yet to be consolidated into a TV-friendly single session, instead being split over two sessions held on Friday and Saturday with the grid decided by each driver’s best overall time. On Friday the rain abated in the afternoon but the track was still too wet for slicks – or so the majority of teams believed.

Anderson called his drivers in for slicks at the end of the session and Barrichello went fastest of all, Irvine fourth. A washout on Saturday meant nobody improved and Barrichello had registered his – and Jordan’s – first F1 pole position. As talking points go it was a tremendous improvement on the temporary chicane which had been installed at Eau Rouge.

When McLaren swooped for Sauber’s Mercedes-badged Ilmor engine supply instead, Jordan went to the altar with Peugeot, believing a manufacturer deal would bring greater investment and technical resources

In dry weather on race day the Jordans struggled to cling on to the faster Williams and Benetton cars and Barrichello spun into the barrier at Pouhon before half distance. Irvine made it to lap 40 of 44 before his alternator failed.

Jordan scored points in all of the remaining rounds, enough to place fifth in the constructors’ championship and encourage Eddie Jordan to raise his expectations of what could be achieved. Especially since he’d already pulled off a deal he hoped would elevate his team to the top tier…

In October McLaren annulled its relationship with Peugeot three years early. Publicly it was presented as an amicable split based on different “long-term commercial objectives” which prompted both parties to “seek alternative arrangements which would be compatible with their strategic plans”. In truth it had become painfully obvious to McLaren boss Ron Dennis that Peugeot was never going to design a grand prix-winning engine; getting to the end of a race was rare enough. He swooped for Sauber’s Mercedes-badged Ilmor engine supply instead. Jordan went to the altar with Peugeot, believing a manufacturer deal would bring greater investment and technical resources.

Enticing though that might have seemed, especially since another rule change was in the offing – a reduction in engine capacity to three litres – reliability continued to be poor. Three seasons of sporadic competitiveness, frequent engine blow-ups and mutual finger-pointing would ensue before Jordan changed supplier again, this time taking on the Mugen-Hondas which would finally propel the team to victory.

Jordan decided to go with Peugeot for 1995 when McLaren ended its deal early - marque representative Jean Pierre Jabouille chats with Jordan in the paddock

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Jordan 194 race record

Starts: 32   
Wins: 0   
Poles: 1    
Fastest laps: 0   
Podiums: 1    
Championship points: 28 

Specification

Chassis: Carbon fibre monocoque      
Suspension: Double wishbones with pushrod-actuated coil springs/dampers   
Engine: Normally aspirated Hart 1035 V10
Engine capacity: 3499cc    
Power: 700bhp @ 13000 rpm   
Gearbox: Six-speed semi-automatic
Brakes: Carbon discs front and rear    
Tyres: Goodyear    
Weight: 595kg     
Notable drivers: Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, Aguri Suzuki, Andrea de Cesaris

The 1994 season wasn't the most memorable for Jordan, but did count a first pole courtesy of Barrichello at Spa

Photo by: Ercole Colombo