Eddie Irvine Biography

Born in and raised in Northern Ireland to a family with a keen interest in motorsport, Eddie narrowly escaped being called Stirling Moss Irvine! Father Edmund had developed an interest in racing during his years living in Canada, but was persuaded by wife Kathleen that the newest addition to the family, should take his name instead.

The young Eddie spent his summer holidays travelling to England with his parents and sister Sonia to watch the British GP, where the family would cheer on heroes James Hunt and fellow Ulster man John Watson.

Sneaking through fences to get in to the paddock was standard practice for the young Irvine children, in fact to this day Eddie has never paid his way in to watch a Grand Prix!

As a child, he developed a fascination for cars from watching his father race. Edmund Sr raced at local circuits, albeit with little success, and eventually hung up his helmet in the early seventies to spend more time with his family and concentrate on his growing scrap-car business. Eddie’s father and grandfather Harry recovered damaged cars and repaired them before selling them on, and after leaving school at 16, Eddie was keen to become involved in the family business, persuading his Dad to let him help out. It was here that he got his first experience of driving, behind the wheels of cars that had ended up in the scrap yard!

1987 saw Eddie’s first big break. At the age of 21 he secured a works deal with Van Diemen, which saw him take two championships and a win in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival. Eddie competed in a total of 35 car races that season, although things got off to a far from perfect start. After winning the first race at Thruxton, he was disqualified for speeding under yellow flags, along with three other drivers, and fined Ł120. The second event was over before it really began, with Eddie nudged in to the barrier at the start, a disappointment after he had taken pole. Things soon picked up, and he went on to win what was his fifth season in FF1600, as well as taking victory in the 1987 Formula Ford Festival.

1996 was the beginning of a new era for Eddie, and the realisation of a dream. The teenager who had once helped out in his Dad’s garage to finance his racing dream, had grown up to secure a race seat with the most evocative name in motor sport.

His Ferrari debut got off to a perfect start in qualifying. Williams rookie Jacques Villeneuve had unexpectedly taken pole ahead of the experienced Damon Hill, and with minutes remaining, Irvine was to further amaze the packed Australian crowd, by displacing his illustrious new team mate Michael Schumacher for third place on the grid.
Admitting to being ‘fed up’ with the Italian team after four seasons as Michael’s number two, Eddie seized the opportunity to build something from scratch with Jaguar, completing a switch with former Jordan team mate Barrichello who left Stewart to take Eddie’s place at Ferrari. After four years racing for someone else, this was his opportunity to lead a team to the top.

2001 wasn’t all bad, though, by any means. Eddie was arguably one of the drivers of the first half of the season, and finally got his just desserts at Monaco when he used all his experience and track know-how to guide the R2 home into third place to earn Jaguar their first podium finish since returning to F1.

So now Eddie and the team have set the sights on the 2002 campaign. All the ingredients for a better season are in place with the team are confident that the R3 is a significant improvement on the R2, and Eddie insisting that he is “still hungry” for success. We will know more when the season begins in Melbourne in March but at the very least we can hope for more podium finishes in 2002...

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EDDIE IRVINE BIOGRAPHY