[1][2] Joe Kelly was Ireland's first F1 driver, racing in the first two World Championship British Grands Prix.

[6] As runner-up of the 1979 British Formula One season, David Kennedy's prize was promotion to a World Championship Shadow seat for 1980.

[8] However, the team was chronically underfunded and had a poorly engineered chassis and despite Theodore's intervention mid-season Kennedy only qualified for one of the eight Grands Prix he was entered in – the Spanish Grand Prix, an event subsequently stripped of its World Championship status due to the FISA–FOCA war.

[9][10] Following Jan Lammers' quitting of the Theodore team in 1982, Tommy Byrne made his debut at the Austrian Grand Prix.

[11] Eddie Jordan, keen to promote an Irish driver, settled on 2002 Formula Nippon season champion Ralph Firman for his eponymous team's 2003 championship assault.