Jordan’s original Formula 1 factory to be demolished next summer

2023 F1 season

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Aston Martin plan to knock down their former headquarters, which has been used by Formula 1 teams since 1991, next year.

The old base is being destroyed to make way for the new facility Aston Martin is building at a cost of up to £200 million.

Eddie Jordan Racing’s eponymous boss commissioned the creation of the factory, which sits on a road opposite British Grand Prix venue Silverstone, in 1990 when he wanted to take his successful junior single-seater team into F1.

It was used by Jordan from his team’s debut in 1991 through to the end of 2005, when it was sold to the Midland Group. The team raced as Midland in 2006, as Spyker in 2007 and then as Force India from 2008 to 2018. When a Lawrence Stroll-led consortium then bought the team after it faced financial struggles, it rebranded to Racing Point and then last year became Aston Martin.

Cars designed and constructed in the factory have won five grands prix. The first was the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, followed by the French and Italian races in 1999. A final win as Jordan followed in Brazil four years later, and the team did not taste success until 2020, as Racing Point, in the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Guy Austin, project manager for the construction of Aston Martin’s new facilities at Silverstone and the demolition of their old ones, explained how that proceed in a video released by the team.

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The Jordan factory was later home to Force India and others
“I looked after design and construction [of the original factory] for Eddie Jordan back in 1990. So what’s the plan here? Well, since we moved into Building One [the new factory], we’re going to knock this over next summer, which will be a sad day in many ways,” he said.

“We’re going to replace it with a new building. And what’s going to be in that building? Well, we’re going to have our staff restaurant in there, we’re going to have our gym in there for the staff, fitness studio, quite a large space for logistics with all the flyaway races we have these days. Logistics is a nightmare, so we need loads of space for packing and unpacking, and our simulator’s going in there.”

Aston Martin’s new facility will be spread across three buildings. “All three buildings will be linked together with bridges, so our staff never have to go out in the wind and cold in the winter,” said Austin. “But it’ll be quite a long walk from one end to the other. It’ll be about 400 metres from one end of our campus to the other end.”

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Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

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16 comments on “Jordan’s original Formula 1 factory to be demolished next summer”

  1. I love that whilst their new simulator will be in this building, he leads with the canteen

    1. @eurobrun catering is important in an F1 team

      1. Just ask Christian :-)

  2. Ah, that’s sad. I have fond memories of working there in the summer of 1997:
    Getting to sit in I think the beautiful Jordan 191 in reception and wonder how the drivers drove without being able to see where they were going.
    Getting the door slammed behind me when I stepped into the pitch black composites oven. Thankfully it had a door handle on the inside too.
    The entire factory stopping working to watch the Melinda Messenger photo shoot outside.
    Taking on and beating Riccardo Zonta in F1 97 on the cafe’s Playstation 1, then sharing our respective F1 test baptisms.
    Nearly getting run over by Ralf Schumacher in some of his first ever pitstop practice, acting as the most expendable member of the team.
    Asking Ralf on the pitwall where his braking point for a pitstop was, being told he didn’t really have one, then subsequently seeing him throw away 4th in the race by overshooting it…
    Being sent to the supermarket to buy Tesco Value kitchen foil for the heat shielding. Only the cheapest (and so lightest) would do.
    Seeing the pain and depression on the face of the lead aerodynamicist as initial commissioning of the Banbury windtunnel was going badly due to the rolling belt having a sizeable jump at the overlap.
    Kicking off a day’s work first thing, and immediately being told the traumatising horror story of Tom Pryce’s fatal accident.
    Being smuggled in a van into Silverstone to spectate at Friday practice without a ticket.
    Nearly leaving my braking too late whilst running in a Le Mans start to the staff karting final but *just* managing to not fall over the kart and instead made up places. And ggetting to within 1.75 sec of Fisichella’s lap record… :) On a 24 second lap… :(
    Donating the test team’s leftover Mcdonalds desserts to an appreciative Ferrari team next door.
    Doing >6x the Silverstone speed limit as a passenger in a drifting Porsche 911 at night, overtaking the entire convoy of staff cars between the pits and the factory.
    The appalled, envious faces of my colleagues when I told them I was taking an entire week’s holiday.
    Receiving a lightly crashed front wing endplate as a momento.
    Polishing the snake on the side of the nosecone using furniture polish. Just loved how its fangs straked down the front wing pylons, and the subtle B&H reflected in its eyes.

    1. @alesici Great and very detailed memories

    2. Love this, thanks for sharing :)

    3. @alesici Thank you. Great to hear these behind the scenes tales.

    4. Comment of the day.

    5. Loved reading this.

    6. Thank you for writing that. Some amazing memories indeed!

  3. Terrible really, but guess it’s gonna be worth that to dabble into the midfield for decades.

  4. I’m going to miss the original Jordan factory. Visited there several times over the last decade. Particularly memorable was the time late in 2019 that I popped into its reception to hand over a gift parcel for the crew, and ended up talking to the receptionist for half an hour about everything from Lawrence Stroll’s helicopter having taken off just before my arrival, to how Racing Point was planning to get back on the podium for 2020. I’m unlikely to get to go again before the factory is replaced, but hopefully it will be possible to visit the team again in future.

    The plans for the new campus are exciting, and I would like Aston Martin to remember it competes with a Jordan heart (I know it’s run post-Jordan names longer than it has run as Jordan, but if you know where to look, there are obvious signs that it does).

  5. Nononononononnononononononoo

    1. There’s no limit.

  6. I did a project in Physics on this car ❤️

  7. Its a pity after he made comment about JCB machine the video then shows a non JCB red telehandler. LOL.

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