EDDIE IRVINE

Grand Prix Summary (as at beginning of 2001 season)

Career Details

1983:       Racing debut, Irish Formula Ford Championship.

1984-86:   Private entrant in Irish Formula Ford Championship.

1987:        Works driver in Van Diemen Formula Ford team. Winner of RAC British Formula Ford Championship, Esso British Formula Ford Championship and Formula Ford Festival.

1988:        British Formula Ford Championship with West Surrey Racing. Sets tap record at Macau F3 Grand Prix  

1989:       International Formula 3000 with Pacific Racing.

1990:      International Formula 3000 with Eddle Jordan Racing, 3rd in championship.

1991:       Takes a lucrative deal to race in Japanese Formula 3000. Finishes 7th in championship.. 1992:    Japanese Formula 3000, 8th in championship.

1993:       Japanese Formula 3000, 2nd in championship. Toyota works driver in Le Mans 24 Hours, finishes 4th and sets new lap record. Does two-race deal with Jordan Grand Prix, beginning with japan where he finishes in a fine sixth place, more than ruffling a few feathers. 20th in championship.

1994:      Full-time Formula One drive with Jordan Grand Prix. Controversially blamed for multiple accident at Brazilian Grand Prix and forced to sit out next three races. Finishes 14th in championship.

1995:      Second season with Jordan, getting on the Podium in Canada and finishing 12th in championship after signing for Ferrari in 1996.

1996:      Paired with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, out-qualifying and out-racing the world champion at the season-opener in Australia. Thereafter diligent number 2 role, finishing 10th in championship.

1997:     Established at Ferrari, finishes on the podium five times and plays a major role in Schumacher's title assault, finishing 7th in championship. 

1998:    Eight podium finishes on his way to 4th in championship, again riding shotgun for Schumacher.

1999:     First win at Australian Grand Prix, then business as usual supporting Schumacher's championship bid until the German crashes while trying to overtake Irvine at the British Grand Prix, breaking his leg. Two-way title battle between Irvine and Hakkinen throughout remaining season, Irvine finishes 2nd as Ferrari wins its first constructors' title for 16 years. 

2000:     First year with Jaguar Racing in Formula One, as team mate to Johnny Herbert scoring 6 championship points with 4th place at Monaco and 6th place at Malaysia.

2001:     Second year with Jaguar Racing in Formula One as team mate to Luciano Burti.

Born in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, 10 November 1965, Eddie started racing in 1983, at the age of 17, in his father's Crossle Formula Ford car. He went on to compete in Formula Ford championships in Ireland and Britain.

After achieving success as a private entrant in 1987, he earned a Duckhams Oil-sponsored drive with the Van Diemen factory team in Formula Ford. In a successful year, he won the RAC and Esso Formula Ford championships and took first place in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

Eddie moved into Formula 3 in 1988, driving a Ralt-Alfa Romeo for West Surrey Racing and finished fifth in the British F3 Championship. A high point of the year was winning a heat of the Macau F3 Grand Prix.

1989 saw Eddie move up to F3000 with Pacific Racing, but after an unspectacular season he joined Eddie Jordan Racing in 1990. 'He won the championship round at Hockenheim and finished third in the overall standings.

In 1991, Eddie decided to concentrate on the Japanese F3000 championship, a series in which he was to compete for three seasons. He finished seventh in 1991, eighth in 1992 and second in 1993, when, after a round of the championship was disqualified from the results, he was equal on points with Kazuyoshi Hoshino. The Japanese driver had a greater number of wins, and therefore took the title.

While he was in Japan, Eddie had come to the notice of Toyota, and he was invited to join the company's sports car team at Le Mans in 1992 and 1993. In 1993, he and his Japanese teammates led for the first hour and set a new lap record on the way to a fourth-place finish.

His experience on the Japanese circuit helped him gain his first Formula One drive, with Eddie Jordan's team in the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Seventh on the grid, he finished sixth, scoring a championship point in his first-ever Grand Prix.

Eddie was invited to join the Jordan team (full-time in 1994. He scored points in the Spanish, European and Japanese rounds to finish sixteenth in the Drivers' Championship. Returning to Le Mans once more with Toyota, he joined with Martini and Krosnoff to take second place by a car's length after a thrilling race in which their Toyota led for 12 of the 24 hours.

Retained by Jordan for 1995, Eddie completed the season in twelfth place in the Drivers' Championship, having scored his first podium finish with a third in Canada.

In a surprise move, Eddie signed for Ferrari in 1996, partnering Michael Schumacher in a completely new line- up for the team. He started the season well, qualifying ahead of the reigning world champion and finishing third in his first race for his new team. At the end of the season, however, he was twelfth in the Championship after scoring points in only three more races.  

Matters improved in 1997, when Eddie scored podium places in Argentina, San Marino, Monaco, France and Japan and finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship. Nineteen ninety-eight was even better, with seven podium finishes, including second places in France, Italy and Japan, and four thirds, in San Marino, Monaco, Canada and Britain. At the end of the season, Eddie took fourth place in the drivers' standings.

Eddie's best season so far came in 1999. He scored his first Grand Prix victory in the first race of the season in Australia and backed up Schumacher's win in Monaco to give Ferrari its first-ever one-two finish in the Principality since 1952. Taking over as number one driver of the team when Michael Schumacher was injured in the British Grand Prix, in which he finished second, Eddie won again at the very next race in Austria. A win in Malaysia, together with third-place finishes in Canada, Hungary and Japan combined with other points- scoring finishes to place him second in the Drivers' Championship, just two points behind Mika Hakkinen.

In September 1999, Jaguar announced that it was entering Formula One as Jaguar Racing in 2000 and Eddie was confirmed as the team's number one driver.

During his first season with Jaguar Racing, Eddie finished 4th at the Monaco Grand Prix and 6th at the Malaysian Grand Prix scoring 6 points in total.