Jordan Grand Prix had finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship in their debut 1991 season, powered by customer Ford Cosworth HB V8 engines. The relationship with Ford could not be continued into 1992 due to the team accumulating large debts. Jordan subsequently agreed to run the Yamaha V12, which was supplied at no cost to the team — a significant attraction given Jordan's constrained budget.
The arrangement required a design compromise from the outset. Jordan's technical team, led by Gary Anderson, had already begun work on the 1992 chassis — designated the Jordan 192 — in the expectation that the team would continue with the Ford V8. The Yamaha V12 was a physically much larger unit, and adapting the 192 to accommodate it created packaging and weight distribution challenges that the team struggled to overcome throughout the season.
The OX11A was a twelve-cylinder unit, reflecting the design philosophy of several manufacturers at the time who favoured V12 configurations for their potential power output and smooth power delivery characteristics. However, the engine presented serious reliability issues, with overheating a persistent problem across the 1992 season. The size and weight of the V12 compared to the Ford V8 it replaced also affected the Jordan 192's handling balance in ways the team found difficult to manage.
The 1992 Jordan season was a stark contrast to the promise shown in 1991. Drivers Stefano Modena and Mauricio Gugelmin suffered persistently from the Yamaha engine's reliability problems. Gugelmin retired from seven of the first nine races, while Modena failed to finish a race until the twelfth round of the season in Belgium. Modena also failed to qualify on four occasions.
The team did not score a single championship point until the final race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, where Modena finished sixth. That single point left Jordan eleventh in the Constructors' Championship, a significant fall from the fifth place achieved the previous year with Ford power. After 1992, Jordan switched to Hart V10 engines, abandoning the Yamaha V12 entirely.
While the OX11A proved unsuccessful with Jordan, Yamaha continued their Formula One engine supply programme through successive generations. The subsequent OX10 V10 family was supplied to Tyrrell Racing from 1993 onwards, allowing Yamaha to accumulate further development data. The OX10A powered the Tyrrell 020C in the latter portion of 1993 and the 021 for the rest of that year. Tyrrell used an OX10B variant in 1994 and a 3-litre OX10E in 1995, the year the regulations transitioned from 3.5-litre to 3.0-litre engines. Yamaha's involvement with Tyrrell ultimately extended through several seasons, though results remained modest throughout.