Eddie
Irvine

Eddie Irvine was born on 10 November 1965 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. He started racing in 1983 in Formula Ford, and in 1987 he won the Esso series, the RAC series and the Formula Ford Festival with Van Diemen. He finished fifth in British Formula 3 in 1988 and moved up to International Formula 3000 in 1989. In 1990 he took third place in that championship with Jordan and won a round in Germany. In 1991 he raced in Japanese Formula 3000 for Cerumo and finished seventh. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans he came second overall in 1994 with SARD.

Irvine made his Formula One debut at the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix for Jordan, finishing sixth and scoring a point straight away. In 1994 he was banned for three races after a collision in the opening round in Brazil. He took his first podium in 1995 with third place in Canada. In 1996 he joined Ferrari as team-mate to Michael Schumacher, and he finished third in his first race for the team, in Australia. In 1997 he came second in Argentina, and in 1998 he ended the championship in fourth place.

In 1999 Irvine won the season opener in Australia for his first victory and led the standings for the first time. After Schumacher's accident at the British Grand Prix, Irvine became the team's lead driver. He won in Austria, in Germany, where stand-in Mika Salo let him through to victory, and in Malaysia after Schumacher's return. The disqualification first imposed on both Ferraris was overturned a few days later. At the final round in Suzuka he finished third and lost the title to Mika Häkkinen by two points. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship that year, and Irvine received the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy.

He joined Jaguar in 2000 and scored the team's first points with fourth place in Monaco. In 2001 he took its first podium, again in Monaco, with third place. His last podium came in 2002 with third place in Italy, and he retired from racing at the end of that year. In Formula One he started 147 races, won four and reached the podium 26 times, without taking a pole position. He later became a media personality in Britain.

Source: Wikipedia, “Eddie Irvine”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.