Eddie Irvine, born in Northern Ireland Edmund Irvine Jr, is a world-class racing driver. He is the son of a garage owner from Conlig, County Down, Northern Ireland and was born 10 November, 1965.

Eddie started racing in small-time races, in karts, minis and smaller formula cars, at tracks like his local Kirkiston. Then he progressed to Formula 3000 in Japan where, despite earning big money, his talent was spotted.

Eddie made his Formula 1 debut for Jordan at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide on 7 November, 1993. He continued to race for Jordan throughout the '94 and '95 seasons before joining Ferrari in 1996. The young Eddie famously clashed with the great Aryton Senna early in his Grand Prix career, when the two collided and spun out of the race. This track side confrontation is what many people still remember Eddie for and not his driving ability.

At Ferrari, he acted as dutiful second fiddle to Michael Schumacher. He was under contract to help Michael as much as possible which lead to controversy when Eddie lifted off to let Michael pass, however at the start of the 1999 season Eddie was the surprise leader of the Formula 1 championship. He won in Australia following the retirement from the race of Schumacher. But after this Eddie continued as the workhorse for his team leader until at Silverstone, UK, Michael had a championship-ending broken leg. Eddie was promoted to the number one spot. Despite many crashes and breakdowns in the McLaren team Eddie was unable to dispose of Mika Hakinen¹ who defended the title.

At the end of the 1999 season, Eddie gained the position of team leader at the Jaguar team² which sees the return of British Racing Green to the Formula 1 circuit. His teammate is Johnny Herbert.

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¹ The Sleeping Finn.
² Formerly Stuart.