DeCesaris should have won the 1991 Belgian GP. He was catching Senna for the lead at a furious pace when his engine overheated. That would have been brilliant to watch.
@@philrussell5258 in a strange way Jordan represented a new outward progressive confident Irishness, much like Riverdance was seen as a cultural moment, Jordan F1 was a statement "we are Irish and we are here to compete", obviously based out of Silverstone, but it was very much the Irish F1 team.
The 191 Jordan is my all time favorite F1 car. I was at it's debut race in Phoenix. It was the Thursday before the race which was a free day and the pits were open to the public - I think to promote the race. I was standing by the scales as the teams pushed the cars up to be weighed and the Jordon car came up with one of the mechanics sitting in the car. He needed to get of the car so it could be weighed. To do that he removed the steering wheel - AND HANDED IT TO ME! I couldn't believe it.
De Cesaris’ DNQ was one of only 4 in his entire career. De Cesaris has a really bad reputation but there is a reason his F1 career lasted as long as it did - even in crap machinery he would almost always qualify, in the days where starting was not guaranteed.
He also was on for a podium in the Jordan at Belgium before his engine died 3 laps from the end. He also usually drove unreliable cars, with most of his retirements being from mechanical issues and not through crashing like most think. In his season at Minardi, he only finished once, and when he drove for Rial, his car would run out of fuel due to its comically small tank. He also got points for every team he drove for except Minardi.
Marlboro kept bankrolling him. He was quick and reliable in his last 4 years though as he finally matured , Sato reminds me of him and I doubt Grosjean ever will.
@KP-lx8bt yes! Spa was also where he got his sole podium for Brabham, comically pushing it across the line as it had ran out of fuel on the start finish straight.
That makes me want to see a remake of the Hesketh F1 team video. I loved that one before it got taken down. It also has one of my favourite racing anekdotes of all time. At the 1975 Dutch GP, it started pissing it down before the start, Lotus, Ferrari etc. hustled to get the cars set up for the wet conditions. When Lord Hesketh looked at his mechanics and said ''Now look lads, we know absolutely fuck all about setting up a racing car, we'll leave it as it is.'' James Hunt, piloting the Hesketh, beat Niki Lauda to the win. The scenes were unreal.
I was at the 91 British GP and witnessed Andrea De Chesaris binned it. But as we were leaving we got struck behind a tow truck with a scrap Jordan hanging off the back with a blue tarp under it. It was being driven back to factory across the road. The Jordan 9-1-1 is in easily in my top 5 F1 cars of all time possibly top 3. It was just so. It looked like it was going 200mph standing still and the curves.
Listening to how EJ did the thing with Camel in F3 reminds me how he did a similar sort of thing with Ford in F1. He'd signed to run the Cosworth engine's, as Ford had got Jaguar running with Cosworth branding and didn't want a car running the blue oval that probably be able to beat the Jag on a regular basis. EJ agreed to this but then went and signed a sponsorship deal with Ford of Germany, without the parent company in the US knowing, so when they turned up for the first race the car was emblazoned with the blue oval in pride of place. The boys in the US wanted it immediately removed for the next race, but EJ being EJ said that he'd want ex millions of dollars to do that as he had a signed contract with, "Ford", even if it was only Ford of Germany, and that would be a breach of contract, and Ford caved so the branding stayed!!!!!
I think the later half of the year had more of a story - especially Belgium. We all know about Schumacher's mega debut quali run - only to break down on the first lap. But what about DeCesaris? Shocked at how fast his teammate went, he got up to 2nd place in the race and even ran in close company with Senna (who was nursing a gearbox issue) before breaking down towards the end. Had things swung the other way it could have been a debut win 7 years early.
Not only that, but iirc it would mean DeCesaris would be the driver with the longest wait for a win, over 10 years after his debut. Sadly he lost both of his best chances to win at Spa due to Engine issues, with his 83 performance also being brilliant, as he got 2 rocket starts in a row (the 1st start was aborted) and pulled a 9 second lead from Prost before a shoddy pitstop from Alfa pit him behind the Frenchman, and then his Engine gave way.
Great as always. With regards to 1989 - there may have been 40 entries that year and 21 teams. The FIRST entry was rejected - Life would later buy the chassis and repurpose it for the 1990 season.
I love this story and I love that you did a story time on it. I think this ranks up there in the podium places for my most favorite story time episodes you've done!!
They were my favourite team so I'm biased, but I think the Jordan story, from rising through F3 and F3000, to their eventual decline and sale, would make for a great documentary. Eddie's shrewd business deals were superb, the team surviving the early 90s when so many teams fell by the wayside was in itself a massive achievement, then a few years later they sign a world champion who gave them their first win, and follow it up by keeping Ferrari and McLaren honest through 1999 despite having a fraction of the budget. There weren't many, if any teams that achieved more with less, and with their rock and roll image it's easy to see why they were popular
My mother loved this car so much she bought a 2 litre bottle of 7-Up each week to support the team. Nobody drank 7-Up in the house, we just had a bunch of 2 litre bottles in the cupboard. Thanks for the memories.
I personally think 1991 was the year with the best looking and best sounding F1 cars. McLaren MP4/6, Jordan 191, Williams FW14, Ferrari 643, Lamborghini 291 etc plus the screams of the 3.5 litre naturally aspirated V8s, V10s and V12s. Even Group C cars of 1991 were (in my opinion) the best looking and best sounding with cars like the Mercedes C11, Gebhardt C91, Brun C91, Jaguar XJR-14, Mazda 787B, Toyota TS010 etc.
1984 to 1996 is the golden era of F1 for me. It was more competitive and the best car didn't always win. As for F1 now, it's far too complicated for my liking and I don't watch it anymore. All this sprint race nonsense, drivers being penalised for daft things that you need a university degree to understand and other petty rubbish.
Aidan, I love your stories where the hits just keep on coming! Just like the Tobacco Money. Did you know Camels are produced entirely with Turkish Tobacco? Hence, the name of the brand.
loved that car.. Made no end of models of it... The simple lines are amazing , a bit like the Leyton House cars that I also loved.. In fact I have a Leyton House F1 OZ wheel in my sons bedroom!
To me the Jordan 191 is 2nd only to the Lotus 79 in looks. It's fitting also that there was blue on the car as that color is prominent on provincial coats of arms in Ireland. I unsubscribed from a channel lately for reasons. Anyway, I have room for one more on my subscriptions page as a result. I'm trying to decide between you and a channel with unrelated content. I'll let you know either way. The algorithm will keep recommending your videos anyway and whoever doesn't get the sub will be next in line. Doing this video scored brownie points though.
A good bit of this story of the first couple seasons sounds quite similar to Haas, even down to the fifth place championship position and rocking up to be fairly competitive in the lower/midfield.
Eddie claimed that the car was originally going to be yellow, but switched to green bc of the 7up deal. He attempted to sign kodak still in the mindset of yellow car yellow sponsors, but they pointed him in the direction of Fuji instead as they used green
Aidan you were a little bit harsh on Roberto Moreno. He was a very talented driver who never really got the breaks in F1. Take a look at this expolits in F3, 1980's F2 and F3000, he was also quite handy in an Indycar.
So, you may not know this, but us long time Aidan fans do: There is a running gag on this channel. Roberto ends up tangentially making appearances in SO many of the storytime episodes, that Aidan starting joking around every time it kept happening by faking disgust at "oh, not Moreno, _again"_ , which eventually evolved into Aiden promising to do a full length Roberto Moreno storytime episode whenever this channel hits 100k subscribers. Which is why you'll occasionally also see things like "7.2k 'til Roberto" in the comment section. Roberto is truly loved here.
The '91-'95 Jordans, Ferraris, and Williams are by far my favorite designs of all time. The '96 and '97 Jordans as well as the '97 Williams FW19 were fantastic. Lastly, I'd throw in the 1997 Ferrari F310B.
Dr Pepper actually owns them, Pepsi just handles international distribution outside of North America. It’s why the 191 ran with Pepsi branding during the 1991 Japanese GP.
@@simonbutterfield4860 Oh it’s massively confusing. It’s owned by Keurig in the USA, Pepsi in Canada and Oceania, and Coca-Cola in the UK, Japan, and South Korea. So, uh, it’s technically owned by both.
@@AidanMillward Trademarking and Branding is so weird worldwide and who owns what is confusing depending on market. Like the Dunlop name being owned by both Goodyear and Sumitomo depending on where they are manufactured. In my country, the track day tires from Dunlop (Direzza Star Specs) are Sumitomo manufactured for example, but the main line tires are all made by Goodyear in the Americas or UK.
Personaly,i think F1 cars should have stayed as they were in those years. Early and mid 90s. Love that car,but it wouldn't be that popular if Schumacher hadn't driven it.
They did great in 1991 but boy did they pay for it (literally and figuratively) in 92,93. But Eddie kept the team going and found the money where alot of team owners would've thrown in the towel
EJ tells a great story about splitting the car’s livery between 2 sponsors for a test, I think he was hoping to send pics to each sponsor of ‘their’ side of the car. When 1 of the sponsors decided they wanted to see the car in real life, Eddie panicked and had to distract the guy enough not to notice the other company’s livery on the other side of the car 😂 He tells the story better, my nightshirt fuelled memory isn’t the greatest so I’ve probably made a complete mess of it! Gary Anderson was up there with Newey and Murray though, people totally underestimate how great a car he made starting with an f3000 car, a completely rookie technical team and about £3.75 to build it. EDIT - apparently he is also responsible for DHL becoming YELLOW from their traditional WHITE too which I find amazing!
You can’t be considered a true connoisseur of F1 history if the Jordan 191 isn’t in your top 10 cars of all time 🤷🏻♂️ Just my completely unbiased opinion
Looking what F1 was then and what F1 is today, you can see why the likes of Eddie Jordan are no longer in the game. That and Bernie Ecclestone told him things are going to change so sell now, you are never going to have a better time to do it.