Eddie Irvine
Edmund " Eddie" Irvine junior ( born November 10, 1965 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland ) is a retired British racing driver. He launched between 1993 and 2002 in the top automotive motor sport Formula 1 and became in 1999 Vice World Champion.
Career
In 1983 Irvine's racing career in Formula Ford in 1985 drove the Irish Irvine in the British Formula Ford 1988 in the British Formula 3 and from 1989 until his Formula 1 entry then in Formula 3000 in Europe and Japan.
His F1 debut Irvine in October 1993 at the Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka for the Jordan team. In changeable and rainy weather, the Northern Irishman showed him the well-known from his Formula 3000 time line straight away his talent by rounded back against the leading Ayrton Senna and finished sixth at the end. Senna was so upset that he allegedly gave the young rider after the race a slap on Irvine's disrespect.
Irvine's courageous driving style, however, assured him until the end of 1995 a fixed regular place in Eddie Jordan's team alongside Rubens Barrichello. Irvine had moderate success at this time, but could 1995 recorded a podium finish after all the Grand Prix of Canada. His eccentric team boss would probably like to continue to be employed Irvine, lost his driver but for the 1996 season for a fee at Ferrari.
There he developed after initial difficulties and small moments in which he beat Michael Schumacher in qualifying, to a total of reliable so-called " number - two pilots ," the team leader Schumacher usually shielded to the rear. In his first Ferrari season he quarreled often with the bulky, by John Barnard -designed chassis and frequent material defects. In the following years he knew always better to set the scene, victories were made , however. His mechanics allegedly complained often about the fact that Irvine was not a great help in the coordination of his car. He was hardly able to say why he was quick in a given graph, in another it is not.
After many failures by the beneficiary and thus surprising victory at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 1999 and the serious accident Michael Schumacher at Silverstone his hour seemed to be come. Irvine had the Ferrari team lead on the driver's side and at first it looked as though he would also succeed. While Schumacher's absence he has had some good rankings and won two more races, so he could put pressure on title favorite, Mika Hakkinen. In the penultimate race of the season in Malaysia helped him even returnees Schumacher himself to his fourth win. Although he started but now with four points in the last race, the Japanese Grand Prix, he was not able to oppose Häkkinen something. He only reached the third place, while Hakkinen won, and was two points behind runners-up. After the season, he joined the newly established Jaguar racing team.
There he was under contract until 2002 and went doing some remarkable race. He managed, for example, the Grand Prix of Monaco in 2001 and the Grand Prix of Italy 2002 uncompetitive vehicles in service as a third party to jump on the podium. Irvine finished his career with the 2002 season and is no longer since been active as a racing driver.
Time after his career
In spring 2004, Irvine appeared abruptly in the messages of the tabloid press, as he was reported for speeding and driving a scooter in London's Hyde Park.
Furthermore, Irvine is now working as an event organizer, or operate an appropriate company offering Formula 1 visits as an event trip. Moreover, Irvine worked after his Formula 1 career both as a commentator for English racing magazines as well as a columnist for appropriate magazines.
In 2008 he planned the construction of a completely new Formula 1 team. He promised himself from the Russian billionaire Roustam Tariko financial support. However, the contract for the vacant twelfth place among the Formula 1 teams went not to his project, but the project of David Richards, Prodrive. This occurred in turn back because of disagreement about the clarification of customer chassis question within a new Concorde Agreement to be signed by this option.
In December 2008, Irvine was involved in Milan together with Gabriele Moratti, the son of the former mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti in a bar fight, following which Irvine and Moratti mutually anzeigten up for assault. In January 2014 both opponents were convicted by a Milan court to a term of imprisonment of 6 months.
Nationality
As in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom born citizens Irvine had a British passport during his entire racing career. He drove for several years with a racing license from the Republic of Ireland because he saw himself as an Irishman. The International Sports FIA regulations stating that a driver who takes part in an FIA World Championship, should compete under the nationality of his passport and not under that of his license, as is the case with all FIA series without WM predicate.
This situation led the podium visit Irvine after the Grand Prix of Australia in 1996 to some confusion: The organizers of the race, the Irish tricolor hoisted by mistake, which meant that the British tabloids about Irvine mocked. In addition, his family received threatening calls from Northern Irish extremists. Irvine then requested to raise in his future podium appearances politically neutral flag with shamrock what the FIA with a reference to its regulations, however, refused.