MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 15

EDDIE IRVINE
GRANDS PRIX - 148
WINS - 4
BEST GRID POSITION - 4th three times
POINTS SCORED - 191
--- F1 CAREER ---
1993 - Jordan Hart - 20th - 1pt
1994 - Jordan Hart - 16th - 6pts
1995 - Jordan Peugeot - 12th - 10pts
1996 - Ferrari - 10th - 11pts
1997 - Ferrari - 7th - 24pts
1998 - Ferrari - 4th - 47pts
1999 - Ferrari - 2nd - 74
2000 - Jaguar - 13th - 4pts
2001 - Jaguar - 12th - 6pts
2002 - Jaguar - 9th - 8pts

Here now is the first of the Irish drivers on my list, and one that came oh so close to securing a world title of his own while driving for the most famous team in the sport, Eddie Irvine from Newtownards in Northern Ireland certainly had an eventful time in Formula 1 right from his very first couple of races.

After being influenced by his family to begin racing, he began in British Formula Ford where he spent 3 years slugging it out in the midfield in uncompetitive machinery, he did though manage to get on the podium on a few occasions and his persistence and patience paid off in 1987 when he signed for the works Van Diemen squad, he did'nt disappoint in winning his first major title that season winning a staggering 19 races in the process. From then the next logical step up was Formula 3 with West Surrey Racing (one of the leading teams at the time) for 1988, but with an uncompetitive engine he was unable to challenge for the major honours, he finished with 8 podiums and 5th place in the championship. But he would make his first major impression in that years Macau F3 Grand Prix, he qualified on pole position and won the qualifying race before unluckily losing the Grand Prix itself to Enrico Bertaggia.

This enabled Irvine to make the step up to Formula 3000 with Pacific who were making their debut in the category for 1989, it was a quiet year, one podium finish in Italy enough to earn Irvine 9th in the championship. He would make the step up to the front running Jordan team for 1990 alongside future F1 star Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Emanuelle Naspetti, but despite his presence at a leading squad, he struggled and despite taking his first F3000 win in Germany and finishing 3rd in the championship, he was a country mile behind the eventual champion Erik Comas. Somewhat disillusioned, Irvine went off to race in the Japanese F3000 championship (Formula Nippon) for 3 years with decent levels of success, after that 3rd year in Japan in 1993, Irvine was to suddenly get the break in F1 he craved.

Eddie Jordan's team that he had raced for in F3000 in 1990 had made the step up to Formula 1 in 1991 and were struggling with a succession of ageing drivers partnering young starlet Rubens Barrichello, based on his performances in Japan, Jordan decided to hire Irvine in place of Thierry Boutsen (who had announced his retirement) for the final 2 races and he grasped the opportunity with both hands qualifying an astonishign 8th place for his debut race, the Japanese Grand Prix, and during that race, he woul certainly leave his mark, most notably on Ayrton Senna. Irvine was running 6th when Senna came up to lap him, Irvine obliged but then Senna was having trouble trying to lap Damon Hill who Irvine was battling for 5th place at the time, so coming into the Casio chicane, Irvine cheekily re-passed Senna to unlap himself before then taking Hill fro 5th spot, a move that enraged the Brazilian. Irvine went on to score a brilliant 6th place, later on, Senna would pay Irvine a visit in the Jordan motorhome and punched him in the face for his actions. But that race alone had made Eddie Jordan's mind up, he immediately signed up Irvine for 1994.

Irvine though was to display an early flaw in his armour in the first grand prix of that year in Brazil. While making his way through the ranks, he had a reputation for reckless driving, and this was shown devastatingly during that race in Brazil, while Jos Verstappen was attempting to pass Irvine for position, they came across to lap Eric Bernard and were also coming across a slowing Martin Brundle, Irvine looked like he was oblivious as th where Verstappen was and attempted to lap Bernard, Verstappen who was alongside Irvine was forced onto the grass, lost control of his Benetton and suffered a sickening looking accident taking out all 4 cars. Thankfully all 4 drivers were unharmed but Irvine was punished with a 3 race ban, during which he was replaced by Andrea De Cesaris. When Irvine returned though, he looked a more mature driver and scored a 6th place in Spain on his return, he went on to score 6 points throughout the season, enough for 16th place in the championship, his best result being an excellent 4th place in Jerez.

Things were looking up for 1995, the ever improving Barrichello stayed as Irvine's teammate, Jordan had signed a new engine deal with Peugeot and the new car was going well in pre-season testing, with the new package, Irvine and the Jordan team had a solid year, the main highlight being his first podium finish (a 3rd place in Canada) helping Irvine to a career best 10 points, enough for 12th place. But for 1996, Irvine had caught the attention of Ferrari who had just signed Michael Schumacher from Benetton in a mega-money deal and with both Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger moving on, Ferrari decided to hire Irvine as defacto number 2 driver in a long term deal.

Irvine finally saw this as a chance to establish imself with a front running team and a possible future championship challenge, and the relationship got off to a great start with a debut podium finish in Australia. The rest of the season though was a struggle as Ferrari seemed to direct all their efforts towards Schumacher, Irvine ended up with 11 points compared to Schumacher's 59 as a result. For 1997 though, Irvine would have is best year to date thanks to a new more competitive car able to run at the front on a more consistent basis, and this showed in his results. Five podium finishes including a new career best 2nd place in Argentina gave Irvine a total of 24 points. But after the Argentine race because of a mix-up and with Irvine racing under a Republic Of Ireland license, the Irish flag was flown instead of the Union Jack. From that point, Irvine requested that the neutral Shamrock flag be flown if he were to make the podium as a response to his family recieving threatening phone calls.

1998 would be even better, the Ferrari along with McLaren would be the class of the field and Irvine would take advantage, in France he held off Mika Hakkinen to give Ferrari their first 1-2 finish in nearly 8 years, a performance that was repeated in Italy, overall Irvine scored three 2nd places and five 3rd places en route to 47 points and 4th overall, but that first win still eluded him. That would come in 1999, a season where he would have his best (and only) chance of title glory. A fortuitous run gave him his first win in Australia and from then on he showed great consistency thoughout the year. Michael Schumacher's season ending accident in Britain helped Irvine greatly as the team's efforts were now focused on him, a point shown when Mika Salo (who replaced Schumacher during his recuparation) voluntarialy let Irvine through to win in Germany after which irvine gave Salo the winners trophy as a thank you because Salo had dominated the race up to that point.

Austria brought about arguably Irvine's greatest drive in a Grand Prix car, McLaren had dominated the weekend being a second quicker than anybody else in qualifying, but Irvine then produced a drive of great courage, and coupled with an excellent pit strategy to beat McLaren's David Coulthard and take an important win. But despite victory in Malaysia and going into the final round in Japan leading the championship with 70 points to Hakkinen's 66, Irvine would lose out by just 2 points, mostly down to poor pit work (most notably at the Nurburgring where the naiveity of mechanics to have just 3 new tyres ready cost Irvine a points finish) with Ferrari signing up Rubens Barrichello to replace Irvine for the 2000 season, Irvine made the move to Jaguar.

His 3 years at Jaguar were instantly forgettable, despite Ford money and the nostalgic feel of the team, Irvine would suffer as would his teammates in those 3 years Johnny Herbert, Luciano Burti and Pedro de la Rosa with underpowered engines and poor chassis' Irvine in those 3 years would score a total of just 18 points. During this time though, he did score 2 podium finishes, his last being at Monza in 2002, his final season in F1.

Since F1, Irvine has lived a celebrity lifestyle making money through property development and starring in a number of reality TV shows including Soccer Aid and a Sky One motor racing challenge which he starred in alongside David Coulthard.