

With Kimi Raikkonen getting older and more sensible with the arrival of a child, the number of colorful characters at the top of the motorsport world is dwindling frighteningly fast. While Kimi is certainly a square peg, his influence on the media is, perhaps, less dramatic than the last of the unabashed playboys; one who left the sport fifteen years ago. Irishman Eddie Irvine decided he’d made plenty of money, been to all the fashionable parties, won a few races, and chased enough of the more glamorous women around the F1 circuit, so he packed his bags in 2002.

However, Irvine was much more than an overpaid playboy. A clever operator, a capable setup driver, and always pragmatic; he knew how to collect points and finish consistently at the front. Perhaps most interesting for the many who often compared him to the eccentric James Hunt with his rock-star image and starry-eyed approach, Irvine always had his feet firmly on the ground.

He didn’t come from money or a racing family. His father had a cursory interest in motorsport and bought an old Formula Ford, but it was just a casual hobby. The young Eddie would polish the car “to make it go faster” and go to the odd Grand Prix with his father, but his introduction to the sport was not one with lofty dreams attached. Irvine aspired to become a Formula One mechanic, in fact.

Working in his dad’s scrapyard to make a little money for racing, Eddie started in Formula Ford when he was 17. With some early success, including winning the heralded Formula Ford festival. While never a dominant driver in the lower formulas, was a serious contender throughout Formula 3 and Formula 3000, finishing in fifth and ninth places, respectively.

Thankfully, Irvine came up at the right time. “I think you have to be good, and you have to be persistent, so you’re around when you get lucky,” he recalled in an interview with journalist Steve Rider. The world economy was booming in the eighties, and he managed to get picked up by Marlboro, with whom he would make major steps to move to Japan, racing Group C cars for Toyota, and eventually get linked up with Eddie Jordan. Irvine was making good money at this point in his career, and with the income from stocks and property investment, he was getting a taste for the good life, and spent lots of his time between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Though likely content with his new role as one of the better drivers in Japan, F1 team owner Eddie Jordan offered him a his big break at the ’93 Japanese Grand Prix, after which, Irvine found himself in a shouting match with Ayrton Senna. Senna was infuriated with the young upstart, who had blocked and re-passed him during the race, and so Senna knocked him off his chair. Slightly stunned but not hurt, Irvine reportedly yelled “insurance claim!” Clearly, the Irishman gave no quarter to the established legends at the time, arguing that Senna had been too slow and given him no choice but to upstage the legend.

It was a dramatic start to the Ulsterman’s F1 career, and it didn’t mellow much after that. He got into a major collision in his third race; a pile-up for which he was blamed, and was suspended for the next few races. Clearly the stage for a colorful character had been set, and the media wanted to know him. His name made headlines, and he became known for his outspoken manner. After being told by a German newspaper that Madonna was rumored to have an eye on him, he remarked, “She obviously has impeccable taste in men.” Similarly, he and Pamela Anderson could be seen frequenting nightclubs together towards the end of his F1 career.

After a few lackluster years with the Jordan outfit, Irvine managed, somehow, to secure the second seat at Ferrari. Rumor has it that Bernie Ecclestone saw his colorful personality brightening the sport, and putting him in with the most romantic team would give F1 a little more sex appeal, which in the dour times just following the death of Senna, was sorely needed.

While certainly full of himself, Irvine was a sensible driver who knew what he had. For a front-runner, he seemed remarkably comfortable in his position as number two at Ferrari behind Michael Schumacher. Though a competitive driver, he acknowledged Schumacher as the best in the field, and happy with the money he was now making and his acceptance into the jet set, Irvine seemed to be at his peak; becoming a celebrity, dating a number of supermodels, and smiling more than his peers, and always with a quick line for the cameras. Life was fun for Irvine despite the pressure of driving for Ferrari, though things grew more serious when Schumacher broke his leg at the 1999 British Grand Prix, and Irvine inherited the number 1 position at the Scuderia. With Schumacher out of commission, Irvine stood a chance at the title, but would not have it easy.

It came down to the ultimate race at Suzuka, which proved to be anticlimactic. Racing against Mika Hakkinen in the superior, Adrian Newey-designed McLaren MP4-14, Irvine simply did not have the pace that day, but he didn’t seem terribly fazed by missing out. For Eddie, while surely disappointing to some degree, it did not change the man’s outlook nor his funloving personality. Even before the race, Ferrari had announced him leaving the team at the end of the season. A clever businessman, he signed up with the new Jaguar team and made a staggering amount of money.

His career ended a couple years later with Jaguar, and gave up motor racing for good. He still frequents the nightclubs at Monaco, amassed a property empire, and continues to build high-dollar homes for rich Americans to add to his portfolio. And still, his jet set lifestyle continues. Moving from Miami, to Monaco, to New York, and even to his private island in the Bahamas via his own plane, Irvine’s been a bonafide bigshot, a self-professed “tosser” and hugely successful. With a combination of Irish charm, remarkable irreverence, and a good dose of speed, Irvine might have been one of F1’s last great entertainers. Let’s hope that’s not the case.