The best looking F1 car ever?

This Jordan-Ford 191 is the actual chassis in which Michael Schumacher staggered all onlookers by immediately clocking eighth fastest practice time during the initial 'FP1' session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in 1991. For final qualifying and the race itself however, Schumacher was to use a different chassis.

While McLaren-Honda dominated qualifying with Ayrton Senna on pole position and team-mate Alain Prost second, behind them in a startling seventh place on the starting grid was Michael Schumacher, by that time back in his originally assigned car, chassis '191/5'. Unfortunately, the young newcomer's overnight celebrity received a salutary humility lesson as – unaccustomed to a racing standing-start with full fuel load, he burned out the clutch and retired before the second corner on the opening lap.

Meanwhile Andrea de Cesaris, back in his race car, featured here – chassis '191/6', completed the first of that Belgian GP's 44 race laps in eighth place and moved into seventh on lap 3. By lap 18 he was up into fifth place, only to be displaced by Nelson Piquet's similarly Ford HB-engined Benetton, then Riccardo Patrese's Williams-Renault – while Jean Alesi's Ferrari was leading from Ayrton Senna's McLaren-Honda. Here was the novitiate Jordan team, with this car, really mixing it with "the big boys".

Alesi's fine Ferrari drive then ended abruptly at the start of lap 31 when the car's V12 engine failed. Piquet's second set of Pirelli tyres on the Benetton were losing grip, and on lap 31 l Cesaris moved into second place behind Senna. The experienced Italian – together with the entire Jordan team - began to hope for a maiden victory as de Cesaris closed to within three seconds of Senna's McLaren. But he had already warned his pit that his car's engine temperatures were running high. They radioed him to ignore the warnings and press as hard as possible, but sadly – with just two laps to run (less than ten miles) – the Cosworth-Ford HB engine cried enough and Andrea rolled to a silent halt out on the circuit.
Senna that day was – for once - a lucky winner.

The impact which Michael Schumacher, as a new young driver sensation, had upon the Formula 1 scene was in fact matched by that of Eddie Jordan's new team itself. As the respected 'Autocourse' annual's review at the end of the season put it: "Rarely has a new arrival made such an impact. In the space of six months Team 7UP Jordan exploded several myths about the impenetrable nature of Formula 1 and, along the way, exposed one or two of the established teams as half-hearted, shambling amateurs. Considering Eddie Jordan's loquacious tendencies, it is fitting that his team should have been the talk of the paddock.

When Jordan announced his intention to step up from Formula 3000 into the major league, it was felt that the Irishman was finally about to receive his comeuppance. The first warning sign to the contrary came with the deal to run the Ford-Cosworth HB engine. Then, when the neat and economical Jordan-Ford 191 was revealed, Gary Anderson's credentials as designer gathered a strength which many had believed beyond the capability of a former mechanic.

In fact Eddie Jordan's gamble – and his faith in his own team's personnel – really paid off in spades. His assigned drivers at the beginning of 1991 were the experienced (and well-funded) Italian Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian rising hope Bertrand Gachot. As a newcomer into what was at the time jam-packed Formula 1 – with no fewer than eighteen teams in contention that season – Jordan would have to pre-qualify for every race.

Their debut had been indifferent in Phoenix, Arizona, when de Cesaris missed a gear, damaged his engine and failed to pre-qualify. But from that point forward he and the young new team never looked back. Designer Gary Anderson had expected his new cars to qualify 15th or 17th, in the lower area of mid-grid. By the second Grand Prix of the season they took 10th and 13th on the starting grid. In the Canadian Grand Prix de Cesaris and Gachot finished fourth and fifth to give an emotional Eddie Jordan his first Formula 1 World Championship points.

But the rather excitable Belgian driver Gachot was struck mid-season by a court case in London which saw him convicted of having used CS gas supposedly to defend himself in a traffic incident, resulting in an 18-month prison sentence.

This triggered Eddie Jordan's quest for a replacement driver for the next race in Belgium, and he selected the young German Mercedes-Benz endurance racing star, Michael Schumacher for that opportunity. It rapidly became apparent that this was one of the most fortuitous moments in Jordan's career. Schumacher created instant sensation, as one report put it "...a complete natural who immediately made himself at home by taking seventh place on the grid at a circuit (Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Belgian GP) he had never seen before. His race was short-lived, due to clutch trouble but Jordan had a winner on his hands.

This iconic 1991 Jordan-Ford 191 is set for auction with Bonhams at their Paris sale on the 2nd February 2023. Its estimated value is between €1.4m - €2m. Photos © Bonhams