Eddie Jordan, an Irish racing driver, transitioned into team ownership after a successful career in British Formula 3. His team, Eddie Jordan Racing (EJR), began in Formula Ford and progressed through various motorsport categories. In 1988, EJR ran F3000 cars for Johnny Herbert and Martin Donnelly, and in 1989, they won the F3000 championship with Jean Alesi.
Eddie Jordan then established Jordan Grand Prix to enter Formula One and hired Gary Anderson to design the team's first Formula One chassis. Anderson, who had previously designed Reynard's F3000 car, carried out the design work for the 191 while also engineering EJR's F3000 race cars.
Gary Anderson led a three-person team in designing the 191, with Andrew Green working on the suspension and Mark Smith on the gearbox, leaving Anderson to focus on the bodywork and aerodynamics. The car featured a tidy form with a raised nose and a drooping rear diffuser. Initially designed for a Judd V8 engine, the 191 was ultimately powered by a Cosworth-Ford HB V8 engine after Jordan secured a customer supply.
Sponsorship for the team included 7 Up as the major sponsor, with additional funding from the Japanese camera film company Fuji and the Irish Tourism Board. The 191 was completed by November 1990, with its first test run conducted by John Watson at Silverstone Circuit. Further testing took place at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. The team's drivers were selected as Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot. A total of seven 191 chassis were built, with one destroyed in an accident at the British Grand Prix.
In the 1991 Formula One season, Jordan had to participate in pre-qualifying at the start of each race weekend. Eight cars entered pre-qualifying, with the four fastest advancing to qualifying. At the opening round in Phoenix, de Cesaris failed to pre-qualify due to engine problems, while Gachot qualified 14th but retired from the race.
Both drivers qualified comfortably at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but both retired from the San Marino Grand Prix. At the Canadian Grand Prix, de Cesaris achieved the team's best finish of fourth place, followed by Gachot in fifth, earning Jordan its first points. De Cesaris again finished fourth at the Mexican Grand Prix. At the French Grand Prix, de Cesaris finished sixth, adding another point. By the German Grand Prix, Jordan no longer needed to pre-qualify for the rest of the season.
After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Bertrand Gachot's season was cut short by a two-month prison sentence for spraying CS gas at a taxi driver in London. For the final six races, three drivers replaced Gachot: Michael Schumacher, Roberto Moreno, and Alex Zanardi.
Schumacher made his Formula One debut at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying an impressive seventh, four places ahead of de Cesaris. Despite a clutch failure ending his race on the first lap, his performance was notable. De Cesaris also retired from the Belgian Grand Prix while running second. Following this, Schumacher signed with Benetton, leading to a legal dispute with Jordan. Roberto Moreno then drove for Jordan for two races before Alex Zanardi completed the final three races, achieving two ninth-place finishes.
The Jordan 191 is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful Formula One cars ever produced and won the Autosport Racing Car of the Year award for 1991. In their debut season, Jordan finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 13 points. Andrea de Cesaris finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with nine points, while Bertrand Gachot's four points earned him a share of 12th place.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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