A person who “would never die”, a “character, an enthusiast”, Eddie Jordan was more than just the man who created a Formula 1 team, he was a “race-maker and a driver-maker”.

Those are the words of triple World Champion Jackie Stewart after the passing of former F1 team boss and personality Jordan.

F1 legend Eddie Jordan has passed away

Jordan’s family confirmed on Thursday morning that the 76-year-old had passed away having suffered aggressive prostate and bladder cancer.

“He passed away peacefully with family by his side in Cape Town in the early hours of 20th March 2025 at the age of 76, after battling with an aggressive form of prostate cancer for the past 12 months.

“He was working until the last, having communicated on St Patrick’s Day, about his ambitions for London Irish Rugby Football Club, of which he had recently become Patron.”

Jordan passed 10 days before his 77th birthday having revealed last year that he was undergoing treatment for bladder and prostate cancer that had spread into his spine and the pelvis.

The ‘irrepressible’ Eddie Jordan

👉 Eddie Jordan: F1’s last ‘rock and roll’ star, while others ‘were Ascot’

👉 Tributes flood in from F1 paddock as ‘true icon’ Eddie Jordan passes away

Although he revealed at the time that his treatment was progressing well, the Ulsterman sadly passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning.

“Eddie was a person who would never die,” Stewart told Sky News.

Going on to speak about Jordan bringing newcomers into the sport, the triple World Champion said: “I was inspired when he brought Schumacher in the first time. In fact, spent some hours with him on an airplane thereafter.

“Eddie was a great people-maker and quite dandy in so many different ways.

“But it really goes to say that we all have to go sooner or later, and I’m sad that he’s gone.

“I definitely send to the family our deepest sympathies, my son Paul, who was racing with me at that time at Stuart Grand Prix with Eddie as a competitor. So we’ll have many happy memories about him. I think that’s the nicest way to look at it. And very sad that he’s passed away.

“He was a race-maker and a driver-maker, but as a character for me there’s many, many memories of him. I just obviously would like to send my sincere condolences to the family. We all have today to do one day or another, we will have to go, and many of us all have the opportunity by hope of meeting Eddie Jordan in a different world.

“A character, an enthusiast, a man who moved amongst so many different people, and his music was a big part of that. He was a great player of music.”

Jordan was more than just Formula 1 as John Watson said, the five-time Grand Prix winner saying: “I think irrepressible is an understatement.

“I mean, at so many different levels Eddie’s interests were obviously motorsport, Formula One in particular, but also passionate about golf, even more passionate about music. He played the drums.

“One of the things he did over many seasons at Silverstone at the British Grand Prix, post the Grand Prix there would be a gig and be a group of independent musicians – some of them were just family, friends, others were titled names – they would put on a show in what was known as the paddock, the old paddock at Silverstone.

“And it was somewhere that once the Grand Prix was over, all the racing had concluded, it was just a place to go and have fun and seeing Eddie at the back of the stage banging the skins off the drums.

“And you know, he loved it. He loved the attention. He loved what he created. It was an alternative, if you wish, to maybe the face that ormula One sometimes does present.”

Martin Brundle, who raced for Jordan in its F3 days, also paid tribute to the 76-year-old, revealing Jordan’s illness had taken him

“I’m really sad to hear that Eddie has succumbed to his illness. He’s not been feeling well for quite a while now, but this has taken him relatively quickly. He was such a character, and we’ll miss him a lot.

“I first raced for Eddie in Formula 3 in 1983 when we hardly had a pound between us, and somehow he hustled and got the car and transporter and everything together, and we had a great season. And that sums him up.

“There are so many drivers in this paddock and formerly on the grid in Formula 1 that would need to thank him, the likes of Eddie Irvine and Jean Alesi and many of us where Eddie gave us a chance in junior racing, and then promoted us like crazy to get us Formula 1 seats, and I was lucky enough to drive for him in Formula 1 itself, for the Jordan team to close the circle, just like many other drivers, such as Damon Hill, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, [Giancarlo] Fisichella, many, many other drivers who were given a chance because of Eddie and his entrepreneurial spirit and his racer’s mentality.

“Eddie Jordan was one of the biggest characters of Formula 1, absolutely irrepressible, and he came through the junior ranks. He was a driver himself, and then he had some teams in Formula 3, and eventually ended up in Formula 1. Won races.

“Everybody loved him. He was such a strong character to have around, great sense of humour, and then when he had something really secret to tell you, he’d whisper to you, we will remember him for that. But the sport will be poorer without him because of what he achieved and what he stood for, and just what a racer he was.”

Read next: Eddie Jordan, F1 team boss and sporting legend, has passed away