page_title: Jordan Grand Prix
section_title: Late 1990s ascent
hierarchical_section_title: Jordan Grand Prix / Formula One / Late 1990s ascent
caption_attribution_description: Jordan 197 Peugeot
context_page_description: Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team is named after Irish businessman and founder Eddie Jordan. Jordan and his team were well known for an easygoing attitude which added colour and character to Formula One in the 1990s. The team was based at Silverstone, UK but raced with an Irish licence.
  In early 2005, the team was sold to Midland Group, who competed for one final season as 'Jordan', before renaming the team as MF1 Racing for the 2006 season, before being sold later in 2006 to Dutch car manufacturer Spyker to become Spyker F1 for 2007, and then sold again to become Force India in 2008. In 2018, as a result of the financial collapse of the Force India team, and its subsequent buyout by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the team's FIA entry was not transferred, and the Jordan Grand Prix's original entry was finally excluded from the sport.
context_section_description: 1997 saw the departure of both drivers from the previous year. Barrichello left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix, whilst Brundle became a Formula One commentator for ITV. Jordan replaced them with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who had raced for Minardi the previous year, and young Ralf Schumacher, Michael's brother. Again, the team finished 5th in the Championship, with Fisichella achieving two podium finishes. At Hockenheim, Fisichella had led the race, but lost out to Gerhard Berger before retiring when a puncture holed his car's radiator. The Italian's other highlight was scoring the fastest race lap at the Spanish Grand Prix. A lowlight of the season came in Argentina when Ralf Schumacher took out his Italian teammate during the race, which was tempered by Ralf's first podium.
  In 1998, the team made its biggest signing as former World Champion Damon Hill, a graduate of Jordan's F3000 programme, replaced Fisichella. The team also replaced its Peugeots, which went to Prost, with Mugen Honda motors. Up to the halfway point of the season, Jordan had failed to score a single point due to reliability problems. At that point, they signed Mike Gascoyne from Tyrrell to bolster the technical team and long-standing technical director Gary Anderson resigned a few months after. Things improved greatly towards the end of the season and at that year's rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix in which only six cars finished, Hill earned Jordan their first ever Formula One win, which was also Hill's 22nd career Grand Prix victory. Ralf Schumacher sweetened the victory by finishing second. Hill finished 6th in the drivers' standings with Ralf 10th. Hill's last lap, last-corner move on Heinz-Harald Frentzen at Suzuka enabled him to finish the race in fourth and also earned Jordan fourth in the Constructors' Championship for 1998 (this was tempered by speculation that Frentzen had "gifted" the place to Hill, the German having confirmed a move to Jordan for 1999, after a tumultuous career with Williams).
  With Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher swapping teams for 1999 (Frentzen at Jordan and Ralf at Williams), the season would turn out to be a nightmare for Hill, who was to retire at the end of the season. However, Frentzen's season was immensely successful, with the German earning two victories and a pole position. For a short while Frentzen had entertained thoughts of a world title, but poor luck and greater speed from McLaren and Ferrari ended his hopes. Frentzen finished third in the Drivers' Championship and the team also finished third amongst the Constructors'. 1999 was to be the team's finest season.
caption: Jordan introduced nose arts from 1997 to 2001, their snake mascot Hissing Sid in the first year.
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