Eddie Irvine

Edmund Irvine Jr. (born 10 November 1965) is a former racing driver from Northern Ireland.

Irvine was born on 10 November 1965 in Newtownards, County Down in Northern Ireland, to Edmund Sr. and Kathleen.

He grew up in the village of Conlig and was educated at Regent House Grammar School in Newtownards.

Irvine began to compete with racing cars in 1983.

He was initially interested in motorcycle racing, but his parents thought the sport too dangerous and was encouraged by his father to race in Formula Ford.

Irvine worked unpaid in his father's scrapyard, in return for which, his father funded his racing hobby.

He won his first race at Brands Hatch in 1984, and an award for best driver.

In 1987 he joined the Van Diemen team and won the Esso Formula Ford series, the RAC Formula Ford series, and the Formula Ford Festival.

In the winter of 1987, Marlboro organised a test in which the fastest driver would be offered a drive for the following British Formula 3 season.

Irvine was that driver and joined West Surrey Racing for 1988.

It was a season without any success and Irvine ended it in fifth place.

He raced at the Macau Grand Prix for the first time and started the race from pole position, but failed to finish.

In 1989 Irvine competed in the International Formula 3000 Championship with Pacific Racing.

Irvine finished the season in ninth place, ahead of teammate JJ Lehto in thirteenth, who was then considered to be a promising young driver.

In 1990 he joined the Jordan Formula 3000 team.

He won in Germany and ended the season in third place, beating his teammates Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Emanuele Naspetti.

Irvine finished on the podium at both the Macau Grand Prix and the Fuji F3 Cup.

At the end of the season Irvine moved to Japan to compete in that country's Formula 3000 championship.

In 1991 he raced for Cerumo Racing and won one race and amassed 14 points to finish seventh in the Drivers' Championship.

Irvine's first race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was in 1992 driving a SARD Toyota Group C car alongside Roland Ratzenberger and Eje Elgh.

The team finished ninth overall and came second in the Group C class.

Irvine made his Formula One debut in the penultimate race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, partnering Rubens Barrichello at the Jordan Grand Prix team.

He made an immediate impact, not only by scoring a point with sixth place, but by unlapping himself against race leader, and subsequent winner, Ayrton Senna.

After the race, Senna, angry at what he perceived to be "unprofessional" driving, approached Irvine in the Jordan hospitality unit, and following an altercation, threw a punch at Irvine, for which he received a suspended two-race ban.

Irvine retired from the final race in Australia with accident damage.

He competed in Formula One between 1993 and 2002, and finished runner-up in the 1999 World Drivers' Championship, driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

He began his career at the age of seventeen when he entered the Formula Ford Championship, achieving early success, before progressing to the Formula Three and Formula 3000 Championships.

He made his Formula One debut in 1993 with Jordan Grand Prix, where he achieved early notoriety for his involvement in incidents on and off the track.

He scored his first podium in with Jordan, before moving to Ferrari in.

His most successful season was in 1999 when he took four victories and finished second in the World Championship, two points behind McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen.

In his four years with Ferrari he also finished fourth overall in and scored 22 podiums.

He has one older sister, Sonia, who acted as Irvine's physiotherapist until 1999.

Irvine's first taste of motorsport came when his family spent their holidays attending the British Grand Prix.

His father also raced in single-seaters for fun.

His childhood hero was countryman John Watson.

He moved to Jaguar Racing in, scoring the team's first podium in and his final podium in 2002.

Irvine retired from competitive motorsport at the end of the 2002 season.

Since retiring, Irvine became a media personality in Great Britain.

He was linked with the takeover of the Jordan and Minardi Formula One teams in 2005, but talks came to nothing.

Irvine also expanded his interests in the property market, having built up an investment portfolio during his racing career.