Former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has no regrets about selling his Jordan Grand Prix team back in 2005 for just $30,000,000 despite the current teams having an average valuation of $1,880,000,000. The Irish businessman is extremely grateful for the life he has and is not bitter about leaving the sport before he could cash out big.
After having a brief stint as a racing driver himself in the 1970s, Jordan founded Eddie Jordan Racing in the early 1980s. This team competed in the F3 championship. Following a successful spell in the lower categories, Jordan decided to launch an F1 team in 1991.
He renamed the team as Jordan Grand Prix and also gave legendary F1 driver Michael Schumacher a chance in that same year. The team enjoyed four wins in total and had their most successful season in 1999, when they won two races.
While things were looking up for Jordan Grand Prix at this point, a decline followed soon after with the team struggling for finances. 2005 marked the last year the team competed in F1, following which Jordan decided to sell it to the Midland Group for a reported $30,000,000, according to theguardian.com.
Interestingly, just 18 years after, the average F1 team is valued at a whopping $1,880,000,000 according to a study conducted by Forbes (as quoted by sportspromedia.com). Despite the same, Jordan has revealed that he has no regrets over his team’s sale.
Eddie Jordan reveals “he is having the time of his life“
Eddie Jordan revealed his thoughts about his team’s sale while speaking to former F1 driver David Coulthard on the most recent episode of the Formula for Success podcast. When asked if he regrets selling his team for a much lower value than what he could have earned today, the 75-year-old began replied by explaining how people can have regrets all their life for different reasons.
After stating the same, Jordan added, “That is a very negative way of looking at life. I had the most unbelievable upbringing. Yes, it was extremely tight in terms of monetary funding and things we weren’t able to do. We just didn’t have money. It didn’t cause any pain. I am still here having the time of my entire life“.
Jordan believes that this is exactly the reason why he feels grateful and considers himself as extremely fortunate with what he has. After explaining the same, the Irish businessman also interestingly pointed out how Christian Horner at one point was interested in purchasing his team before joining Red Bull.
The 75-year-old revealed that the Brit sought funding from Hong Kong but that the move did not materialize. Jordan believes that Horner would be happy about the same because the 49-year-old has achieved immense success without handling the finances of an F1 team. However, he did add that teams today are unlikely to face a financial crisis because of the kind of backing they have.
Why are F1 teams valued so high?
According to a recent study conducted by Forbes, the average value of F1 teams is a staggering $1,880,000,000. The study adds that even the lowest valued team, Williams, has a massive valuation of $725,000,000.
Considering that the teams have such high valuations, it begs the question of what has resulted in this change. As per a report issued by sportspromedia.com, the key reason for F1 teams having such high valuations today is because of their lucrative sponsorship deals.
For example, even teams at the back of the grid like Haas have sponsors such as Moneygram, who pay the side a whopping $20,000,000 each year. Furthermore, another reason behind these valuation surges is the increase in viewership that F1 has witnessed recently.
The report states that the expectation is that global media rights will increase to $1,000,000,000 by the end of this year and to $1,400,000,000 by the end of 2029. These are some of the reasons why the valuations of the teams are so high, and perhaps why Eddie Jordan believes that F1 teams today do not need to worry about financial difficulties.
