It was more a way of life than a motto. So much so that the acronym “FTB” was tattooed on Eddie Jordan’s right wrist and that of his four children; a reminder to continually embody the phrase, which, so states the website Irish Hidden Treasures, epitomises “defiance and resilience”, and a refusal to let “negativity” dampen one’s ambitions.
It feels an appropriately inappropriate way to begin talking about Jordan, the late, great rock-and-roll Formula One team owner and pundit, who passed away in March at the age of 76. “Excuse my language so early on,” I say. “But it was obviously the key phrase of his life: Feck the Begrudgers.”
Marie Jordan, his wife, whom he married in 1979, is quick to chime in: “You can believe I’m well used to that,” she chuckles. “Don’t even hesitate the next time you want to say it!” Ice is well and truly broken.
Undoubtedly, “FTB” was a core ethos of the man known to his friends and colleagues as “EJ”, the much-loved Irishman who touched every corner of the F1 paddock over 30 years. The outpouring of emotion and tributes at his sad passing earlier this year, after a year-long battle with bladder and prostate cancer, highlighted not just his accolades but the wider impact of his omnipresent style of uproarious shrewdness in a mishmash of business and sport.
“You don’t change your spots,” Marie says of the man she met, via an ex-boyfriend, at a disco in Dublin. Even back in the mid-1970s, “FTB” was instilled deep inside. “You also know from seeing him on television that he didn’t hold back.
“He was never afraid of anything or anyone. When he was a pundit, he didn’t need that job. So whether he got attacked and spoke out, positive or negative, he didn’t care. It made him quite a dangerous man to have in that position.”
To those of a younger generation, Jordan is best known for those half a dozen years as an integral cog in the three-pronged presenter formation alongside Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard at the BBC.
Yet his main achievements in the sport are not just those that are listed for all to bear witness – handing Michael Schumacher his F1 debut at Spa in 1991, for instance – but also Jordan’s unshakeable principles of life, signed and sealed with an indomitable Irish quick wit and vibrancy.
These principles, 25 of them in total, are the basis for a new book based on Jordan’s high-octane lifestyle. Full Throttle, Lessons from a Life of Motorsport, Money and Mischief, is written by a close friend, manager and Irish compatriot, Keith O’Loughlin.
“It wasn’t just the Begrudgers,” O’Loughlin expands. “It was anyone who said something was impossible. A ‘no’ to Eddie just meant you needed to ask the question and challenge. He’d rally against people saying no to him and just say, ‘I’m doing it, f*** you.’ He was incredibly determined.”
It was the basis for Jordan’s mantra of never sitting still. Having realised a career in accountancy at the Bank of Ireland was a little too mundane, he quickly took up karting before launching his own team, Jordan Grand Prix, in 1991. Not always the quickest, by any means, the team adorned in yellow, and their ebullient team boss, could never be ignored.
The F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone knew that better than most. Quickly spotting Jordan’s acute and relatable business style, he sent his protege off on errands to China and Bahrain at the start of the century as negotiations concluded to stage a grand prix in those countries. Ecclestone came to rely on Jordan as a man who could get the job done.
Not that such trust necessarily extended to his better half. “I tried to stay away from Bernie, I found him calculating,” Marie says. “At the very beginning, I needed a full-time [paddock] pass. And Bernie said to me: ‘But what about the other girl that comes in?!’ I said you effing b******.
“But Eddie just rubbed people up the right way. Whenever I deal with a corporate person, I’m always surprised at how straight they are. But Eddie was the opposite, completely irreverent. A sponsor would walk in and Eddie would immediately say, ‘I’m going to pull your pants down.’ And that’s it: he’s got control already.”
Even beyond the sale of his team in 2005, Jordan immersed himself fully in the globe-trotting F1 circus. His outspokenness lent itself perfectly to punditry, even in his final years, as he presented a podcast called Formula for Success – leaning perfectly on another well-used acronym – alongside Coulthard. And perhaps his most notable final deal was acting as Adrian Newey’s manager for the F1 design guru’s move from Red Bull to Aston Martin earlier this year.
Newey and Jordan formed a friendship in Cape Town, a city that became Jordan’s spiritual home, with a house overlooking the sea in Clifton. Not that it slowed him down, as such.
“Six weeks before he passed, he was on stage with [rock band] Mike and the Mechanics, playing the drums,” O’Loughlin recalls. Jordan was famous in his heyday for concluding F1 weekends performing with his band, Eddie & The Robbers. “He was still doing the podcast as well. He’d always say ‘don’t tell the mammy’ [referring to Marie]. He would have a Red Bull, go on the podcast and be amazing.”
Poignantly, Marie and O’Loughlin are keen to expand Jordan’s long-lasting legacy. The Eddie Jordan Foundation is not a “charity focused on giving out money”, as O’Loughlin says, but “helping anybody of any age who has a business idea… we got his principles by osmosis and all we want to do is share them.” And most ubiquitous among them all is a restlessness and drive that was present right to the very end.
“The day after he had his prostate removed, he was out in Monaco speaking to Adrian [Newey] about the move and the deal,” Marie says of his final weeks. “He stayed strong through most of it, until about February. But he didn’t want to stay like that – it was all or nothing.”
Rock-and-roll Eddie Jordan gave Schumacher his debut – and his flamboyance captivated F1’s paddock
Damon Hill says Eddie Jordan’s death means Formula One has lost ‘a true legend’
Eddie Jordan hailed as a ‘one-off’ who ‘lit up a room’
Massa’s legal case begins in London High Court over Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title
Bernie Ecclestone bids to throw out Felipe Massa legal claim over 2008 F1 title
Andrea Stella calls for calm in McLaren camp as championship fight tightens
