Eddie Jordan was an Irishman who had achieved some success in British Formula 3 as a driver until he recognised he had reached the peak of his career and then set up a racing team.

His team, Eddie Jordan Racing (EJR), ran initially in Formula Ford and steadily progressed through the motorsport tiers.

In 1988 EJR ran a pair of F3000 cars for Johnny Herbert and Martin Donnelly and the following year won the F3000 championship with Jean Alesi.

Originally designed for the Judd V8,[2] the 191 ended up being powered by a Cosworth-Ford HB V8 engine, Jordan having arranged a customer supply[3] after fortuitously making contact with a senior executive at Cosworth.

[3] Due to the number of teams taking part in the 1991 Formula One season, Jordan had to complete pre-qualifying at the start of each race weekend in order to be allowed entry into qualifying proper.

[9] Both drivers retired from the San Marino Grand Prix but at the next race, in Montreal, de Cesaris scored the team's best finish of the season, with a fourth place.

[12] By the German Grand Prix, the number of points scored by de Cesaris and Gachot meant that Jordan were not required to pre-qualify for the remainder of the season.

[2] After the Hungarian race, Gachot's season was curtailed by a two-month prison sentence, for spraying CS gas at a taxi driver in London.

At the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher qualified a superb seventh on the grid (Jordan's joint-best ever at that time), outqualifying de Cesaris who was eleventh.

[3] Having made his way into second place by the final stages of the race, De Cesaris also retired, within a few laps of the finish, and was eventually classified in 13th.