{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"Working for Eddie Jordan: 'He shut the door in my face. I've worked there ever since'","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6aa155526389ebc58141ee68/9a2052e3d926ade5e758a7cdaac94a4a.jpg?height=200","description":"The death of Eddie Jordan has prompted some impressive tributes from former drivers and paddock contemporaries. But what was it like to work for the colourful Irishman – and how good a leader was he?
\nFew knew EJ better than Andy Stevenson, who joined him as an F3 mechanic towards the end of 1987. Some 38 years later Stevenson is still at what is in effect the same team as sporting director of Aston Martin, one of several employees who has remained on board what was originally Jordan GP.
\nIn 1987 Stevenson was working for the Magnum F3 outfit when team manager Bosco Quinn left to rejoin Eddie Jordan Racing, winners of that year's British title with Johnny Herbert. Quinn was keen for Stevenson to follow him to Jordan.
\n\"He called me up and said do you want a full-time job working for the British F3 champions?,\" Stevenson recalls. \"I jumped at the chance and went to Silverstone one evening to have an interview with Bosco.
\n\"He said, 'I know what you're like, I know your skillset and your attitude.' And towards the end of the interview he said, 'You've got a job. This is how much we're going to pay you.'
\n\"Then Eddie came in. I'd never met him before. He said, 'Bosco, who's this c***?' Bosco said, 'It's Andy, I've just offered him a job.' He said, 'Don't hire him, I don't like him, I don't like the look of him. He doesn't belong here.'
\n\"To be honest at the time I was a bit star struck, because Eddie was a big name in motor sport already by then, he was manager of some successful F1 drivers, and he had been around a while. We all knew who he was.
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\n\"I turned up for work for my first day on the job, and the office was still locked because I got there nice and early. Eddie was the first guy who turned up. I introduced myself to him, and he literally turned around and said, 'What the f**k are you doing here? I told Bosco not to hire you.'
\n\"I thought he must be joking, but he wasn't. I went to follow him in, and he said, 'No, f**k off,' and shut the door in my face. So I sat in my car, and 10 minutes later, Bosco arrived. I told him, 'Eddie said I haven't got a job', and he just said, 'Ignore him, come in with me'. So that was my introduction to Eddie. And I've been working there ever since…\"
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\nObituaries
\nEddie Jordan, who has died aged 76, was one of the biggest characters in Formula 1: a charismatic team boss to whom wheeling and dealing with sponsors came naturally; an incisive and unbridled TV pundit; and a man who remained a mover and shaker in the paddock until the very end
\n20th March 2025
\nBy Damien Smith
\nStevenson soon found out how Jordan tried to get the best out of his employees.
\n\"I was only a young kid, and I always felt like Eddie was picking on me,\" he recalls. \"He'd ask me what I was doing every single day, he'd ask me what my plan was every single day. 'What are you going to do that's better? How are you going to make the cars go faster?' And I found it quite tough.
\n\"As you grow up you learn to understand these things. What Eddie was actually doing and what he did with everybody, he was finding the best way to motivate me. And with Eddie, he knew if he motivated you, he got the most out of you, so he got the most value.
\n\"It also meant the team was as strong as possible. And the people that always hung around the team, stayed with the team and worked with Eddie, were those that could react and could dig deeper and improve themselves.
\n\"Some would say because he didn't want to pay the big bucks, he'd hire people, and he'd mould them.\"
\n\"He had this ability to spot potential, and not only in drivers, but in staff as well. Mechanics, designers, commercial staff, press, he would spot potential in them, and he would extract that potential. Some would say because he didn't want to pay the big bucks, he'd hire people, and he'd mould them.
\n\"He would make you feel more confident in yourself and a stronger person. And to this day I still get up every day trying to do a better job than I did the day before.\"
\nAnyone who spent any time ar...","author_name":"Motor Sport Magazine"}