Former Formula 1 team principal Eddie Jordan has some incredible stories from his time in the sport.
Eddie Jordan made his F1 debut as a team boss in 1991 with the self-named Jordan Grand Prix.
Jordan were one of the final truly independent teams on the grid before being taken over by Midland in 2006, but in that time they achieved feats many wouldn’t have thought possible for such a small outfit.
They cycled through five drivers during their first season – including the great Michael Schumacher – before Damon Hill won their first race in Belgium in 1998.
Jordan now thinks there’s a modern day Schumacher on the grid, someone he would likely have tried to sign and then sell on were he still in the paddock now.
Eventually, Jordan sold up knowing that the team needed further investment and said in 2005, “I spoke to a number of interested parties in recent months and these are absolutely the right people. This deal provides the team with the security and strength it needs.”
However, while in Formula 1, Jordan was always looking for ways to raise funds for the team.
He spoke on the latest bonus episode of the Formula For Success Podcast about how he managed to convince 7UP to sponsor Williams and the unusual role Michael Jackson played in the negotiations.
How Michael Jackson cancelling a tour earned Jordan one of its biggest sponsors
Jordan was asked how he managed to negotiate the 7UP sponsorship on the side of his F1 cars and explained: “7UP was a very tricky thing.
“I lost Flavio [Briatore] who was my real enemy at the time, they took Camel away from me which I thought I’d done because I won the championship with Jean Alesi and Camel thought we were great but that disappeared.”
Jordan then talked about a speech he made in London to try and convince 7UP to sponsor his team.
He said: “So, I was left there speaking like this, unassisted with no script for an hour, to the 600 delegates of Pepsi-Cola.
READ MORE: Eddie Jordan says giving 51-point driver his F1 debut was ‘one of the highlights’ of his life
“At the end, Pepsi-Cola turned out and they said, we want to wish Eddie Jordan the very best in his Formula 1 career and we will all be here looking for you, but in the meantime, the boss was talking to the delegates and said, ‘We will be sponsoring Michael Jackson’s two-year tour and it is something that the people of Pepsi and 7UP and everybody behind all of that group needs to get behind’.
“As luck would have it, Michael Jackson got too close to the candles at Christmas, burnt his hair, burnt his head, cancelled the gig and what happened? Jordan got the money from 7UP!”
Eddie Jordan rejected ‘too British’ brand to run 7UP on his F1 cars
In the team’s first season, Jordan arrived with a green car with 7UP’s label emblazoned on the side.
However, initially, Pepsi wanted the car to be blue to advertise their more popular drink, but Jordan thought it looked ‘too British’.
Instead, he wanted the ‘green of Ireland’ to be represented in Formula 1 that year and claimed that 7UP was the most popular soft drink in Ireland as a result.
READ MORE: Eddie Jordan reveals ‘ridiculous’ demand Damon Hill made to join his F1 team
A year later, Jordan’s cars were blue, 7UP being replaced by SASOL on the side of their cars.
Modern F1 fans will know Jordan as Aston Martin, although they’ve gone through plenty of changes to reach that point.
Jordan helped Aston Martin sign Adrian Newey after representing the designer during negotiations.
Even all these years later, he’s still trying to do the best deal possible in Formula 1, even if he’s not in the paddock every race like he used to be.
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