Will there ever be another Irish Formula 1 team?

Since then, more and more people tune in to see F1 live events, and some even bet on them. That also brought the question, especially for Irish fans, will we ever see another Irish F1 team? Because Ireland did have a representation in the F1 circuit between 1991 and 2005 through a team called Jordan Grand Prix.

The Irish are known for their love of sports and this includes motorsport, where the main racetrack in the country; Mondello hosts plenty of regularly motorsports events along with rally events taking place around the country.

As seen with the bookmakers, many Irish fans love placing bets with F1 regularly listed as “featured events” leading us to believe that an Irish F1 team would receive a lot of support.

Jordan Grand Prix was the only Irish F1 constructor/team, and it was named after Eddie Jordan, an Irish businessman that also founded the team. Jordan Grand Prix was based in Silverstone, however they received an Irish license. The team was created because Eddie Jordan had a major passion for driving, since he did have his own, rather brief stint as a driver in the late 70s.

However, in the early 1980s, he decided to create Eddie Jordan Racing, a team that became prominent in the Formula 3 championship. In 1983, specifically, Martin Brundle who represented Eddie Jordan Racing, had a great feud against Ayrton Sena. Additionally, that was the time when they were running great drivers like Eddie Irvine and Martin Donnelly, which would eventually become future F1 drivers for the team.

Once the company had success in the lower formulae leagues, they decided to enter the F1 program, and that’s when the change to Jordan Grand Prix happened. John Watson was the first driver to test the F1 car, and the company also hired Bertrand Gachot and Andrea de Cesaris in order to help the team grow. Their start was great, with the team finish 5th in the Constructor’s Championship and Cesaris getting the 9th place in the Driver’s Championship.

The team started seeing multiple changes over the years. In 1993, they switched engine suppliers and decided to go with Hart. They also hired Rubens Barichello and Ivan Capelli, with the former choosing to stick with the team until 1997, when he switched to Stewart Grand Prix. The team did very well in 1999 with Heinz Harald Frentzen doing great for the team.

However, the team started its decline in 2000 and eventually they remained without an engine deal in 2005, although Toyota did manage to jump in at that time. Soon after that, Eddie Jordan decided to sell the team to the Midland Group for around $60 million.

Eddie Jordan had a lot of experience when it came to helping and training drivers. In fact, a lot of drivers started their successful career or thrived alongside Eddie Jordan. Some of the prime examples include Michael Schumacher, Alex Zanardi, Ralf Schumacher, Takuma Sato, Rubens Barichello and many others, such as Heinz-Harald Frentzen or Andrea de Cesaris.

While there weren’t many Formula 1 drivers from Ireland, there are a few notable names. Joe Kelly was the first F1 driver from Ireland, and he raced in the first 2 WC British Grand Prix.

Derek Dally is another Irish F1 driver and he worked with Hesketh Racing form their final 3 Grand Prix races, after which he went to Ensign, all of which happened in 1977. Other notable F1 drivers from Ireland include David Kennedy, Tommy Byrne and Ralph Firman.

Since there are so many F1 fans in Ireland, a lot of people are wondering if we will see another Irish F1 team. People have been vying for a Jordan Grand Prix successor for a very long time, so is it possible for us to see another team like it? After all, we are over 20 years away from the sale of JGP. Unfortunately, the outlook is rather bleak.

A major challenge comes from the bureaucratic bottlenecks that set the barrier to entry extremely high. However, another challenge comes in the form of financial struggles. For the 2024 season alone, the entry fee was $657837, and then the penalty per point taken at the beginning was $6575. In total, it costs around €121 million ($135 million) to run such a team.

A lot of gamblers would like to wager on an Irish team. But as we can see, the financial investment is huge, and there’s no word on what a team would gain if it doesn’t qualify high up during every race. Simply put, creating a new F1 team based in Ireland is a huge financial risk that not a lot of investors are willing to take, if any.

The same thing is valid when it comes to finding a good engine supplier. Some of the major manufacturers already have their own team, so finding an engine supplier could prove to be difficult. And it’s also important to note that teams like Hispania, Virgin Racing or Lotus have met their demise very quickly, with only Haas managing to remain a part of the F1 series. The hope still remains that some investor will eventually help create an Irish F1 team, but for the time being, that’s just a dream that’s unlike to happen!