
Eddie Jordan apologises live on radio amid cancer treatment: ‘Please forgive me'
Former F1 team owner Jordan, 76, revealed in December that he had experienced some 'very dark days' after being diagnosed with 'aggressive' bladder and prostate cancer last spring, which spread to his spine and pelvis.
Jordan provided a further update last week, insisting his chemotherapy is in 'good shape' whilst urging people to 'go and get tested' for cancer.
Yet on Thursday morning, speaking on talkSPORT about leading a consortium which has bought London Irish rugby club out of administration this week, Jordan became emotional as the conversation naturally moved on to his current round of chemotherapy.
"Sorry guys, just a small thing, thank you,' Jordan said. "I've just come out of getting chemotherapy and I'm not 100 per cent together here guys.
"I'm just not myself at this moment in time. I'm a little all over the place, so please forgive me."
Presenter Alan Brazil told Jordan 'not to worry', adding: 'I wasn't going to bring it up. But listen, if we can get this out to people, it's encouraging. Well done you.'
Jordan replied: 'I just had a big deal of it yesterday so I'm sorry – I'm not quite myself.'
Brazil signed off by saying: "Take care Eddie, don't you worry, you were fine.
'Get your health better and come back to us with more positive news about London Irish."
Jordan, who spent his winter in Cape Town, said last week on his Formula For Success podcast with former F1 driver David Coulthard: 'I'm in the middle of a chemo cycle at the moment, which happened to be on today, as we're doing this recording, in good shape.
'And I must say, look guys and girls, don't be afraid. Go and get tested. I'll just leave it at that. I don't want to be just like a gramophone record going round and round, but the reality is that there is a great chance of survival.'
Jordan and his consortium have swooped to secure London Irish's intellectual property, brand and rights this week.
Kyle Jordan, a senior partner in Jordan Associates and Eddie Jordan's son, said: "We are incredibly excited about this opportunity to steer London Irish towards new heights.
'Our investors bring not just financial backing but a profound passion for rugby and a commitment to the community, and in particular want to reach out to the global Irish diaspora to build the exile brand."
Jordan used to be a pundit on BBC's coverage of Formula 1 and ran the Jordan Grand Prix team from 1991 to 2005.
He also played a key role last year as Adrian Newey 's manager, as the Red Bull design guru agreed a lucrative deal to join Aston Martin next month.

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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Jos Verstappen was Christian Horner's main rival during the sexting scandal that caused a split at Red Bull: Father of F1 champion Max, once assaulted a man at go-kart track, was accused of attacking an ex and has been arrested for attempted murder
The F1 world was left in shock on Wednesday morning when Christian Horner was released from his operational duties as Red Bull boss. The sensational news ends the longest reign of Formula One team principals in the sport and comes a year after the scandal that engulfed him over texts he apparently sent to a female employee. Red Bull issued a statement confirming the news, reading: 'Red Bull has released Christian Horner from his operational duties with effect from today, Wednesday 9 July 2025, and has appointed Laurent Mekies as CEO of Red Bull Racing.' Horner's former Spice Girl wife Geri Halliwell stood by her husband after the explosive accusations rocked the Formula One paddock last year. Horner has vehemently denied the claims. Screenshots of alleged WhatsApp messages between Horner and a Red Bull employee were leaked anonymously the day after a three-week investigation, carried out externally, cleared the 51-year-old of all allegations. Horner survived accusations of coercive behaviour towards his colleague – and was twice cleared in internal investigations of wrongdoing. Several figures within F1 and Red Bull were split on Horner, and his efforts to move on from the 'sex texts' scandal at the time were frustrated by an enemy in his own camp - the hot-headed father of Red Bull's star driver, Max Verstappen. Jos Verstappen repeatedly turned on Horner during the saga, saying the furore was ' driving the team apart' and that there would be tension as long as he stayed as its principal. Jos, who manages his son, also accused Geri Halliwell's husband of 'playing the victim' and said at the time the team would 'explode' if he refused to stand aside. The pair were at loggerheads throughout and were even seen having a heated conversation in Horner's office ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix last year before Jos stormed out - although he later returned and the pair shook hands. The Dutchman is a former F1 driver himself and an influential figure at Red Bull, but he has a controversial past that has seen him come into regular contact with the authorities. A fight on a go-kart track in 1998 led to him fracturing his victim's skull and saw him handed a five-year non-custodial sentence by a Belgian court. A decade later, the three-times married father of five reportedly received a three-month suspended sentence for threatening Max's mother, Sophie Kumpen, and violating a previously issued restraining order. Then in November 2011, Jos denied claims he assaulted an unnamed 24-year-old girlfriend in a hotel room in Venlo, Holland. And in January the following year, he was arrested for attempted murder after allegedly driving a car into his former girlfriend in the southern Dutch city of Roermond. The charge was withdrawn due to a lack of evidence and he was released after two weeks in jail. Jos also had a near-fatal accident at the German Grand Prix in 1994 when his Benetton car exploded into a fireball when he came in for a routine pitstop that went wrong during refuelling. The Dutchman was Benetton team-mates with legendary racing driver Michael Schumacher before the German left for Ferrari. None of Jos' past seems to have changed the close relationship between him and his world champion son. Max paid an emotional tribute to his father in 2021 after he controversially overtook Lewis Hamilton to win his first championship, saying: 'All the years we spent travelling for that goal and then everything comes together in the last lap. It's insane.' One story of the 'tough love' displayed from father to son dates back to 2012, when Jos kicked a 15-year-old Max out of his van as they were driving back home to Holland as punishment for crashing in a kart race. 'I didn't speak to him for six or seven days,' Jos explained. 'I knew what I was doing. I think it helped him and shaped him.' Jos was one of Horner's most vocal critics throughout his time in charge, and the feud that developed last year continued this time around. After the high profile departures of Red Bull's design guru Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and strategy chief Will Courtenay, Jos said: 'Yes, this is what I warned about. 'The team then says "Oh, it doesn't matter, we have someone else." But it's too many people now [leaving]. 'Max gets questions about it every time and so on. So yeah, I think it's just not good, what's happening at the moment. 'He [Horner] always glosses over it.' During their high profile disagreement last year, what Horner and Jos were discussing in the team trailer remains a secret - although the now former Red Bull chief was clearly agitated and seen pointing outside and waving his hand around. Jos had his hands in his pockets. Throughout their feud, it raised constant speculation over whether it may impact Verstappen's future at Red Bull, although he recently told Mail Sport that he is planning to stay with the constructor. Meanwhile, according to his affiliates, Horner believed Verstappen Snr orchestrated a campaign to unseat him when the sex-text scandal broke, the implication being that the Dutchman may even have had a hand in the email leak.


Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Christian Horner's demise: A huge row with Jos Verstappen, then a tearful goodbye
After 20 years, eight drivers' titles, six constructors' titles, and 124 race wins, it all ended with a tearful speech in front of the entire workforce at the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes on Wednesday morning. Well, not the entire workforce. It is understood Red Bull chief Oliver Mintzlaff and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko decided to stay in the Racing Bulls factory next door. Christian Horner said what an honour it had been leading the team, building it up from the ashes of Stewart Grand Prix and Jaguar into Formula One's version of the All Blacks. According to witnesses, many of whom have never known life at the factory without Horner at the helm, there was sustained applause at the finish. Even a few tears from Horner himself and members of the staff. But it has felt for some time as if the situation at Red Bull Racing would end in tears. An emotional Christian Horner says goodbye to the Red Bull staff. — Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) July 9, 2025 When Jos Verstappen warned last last year that the team risked being 'torn apart' if Horner stayed in situ in the wake of his 'sexting' scandal, it fired the starting pistol on a civil war from which there could be only one survivor. What Verstappen snr was basically saying was: either Horner goes or my boy goes – sooner or later. That threat has been delivered. While Red Bull were winning – and they managed to claim the drivers' title last year thanks to their dominant form at the start of the season and then Verstappen's sheer brilliance – Horner was safe. He was, after all, cleared by two investigations and had the backing of Red Bull's majority owner, Thai businessman Chalerm Yoovidhya. Horner's relationships begin to fracture... again But that success was only papering over the cracks. With the team currently going through a lean spell on the track, and with the prospect of further lean times to come, the poison began to spread again this year. Horner's relationship with Verstappen snr and Marko began to fracture again. The shift in atmosphere when Jos, in particular, attended races was palpable. He has not done that so much of late, having been competing in rallying for much of the last 18 months. But he was there at Silverstone last weekend. After his son finished fifth in the race, multiple witnesses in the Red Bull garage saw him get into a heated row with Red Bull's director of communications, Paul Smith, and then with Horner as well. It is understood the disagreement centred on Smith's communications with the media, who he spoke with and what he was briefing. Smith was also placed on gardening leave this week, along with Oliver Hughes, Red Bull Racing's group chief marketing and commercial officer. Both were seen as staunch Horner allies. At the same time, the power battle with Austria, which has been going on since the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022, returned to the fore. Horner was not just CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing, he headed up the Powertrains and Advanced Technologies businesses, too. The marketing of both teams was also run in-house. Telegraph Sport has been told that Red Bull Austria first proposed spinning off the marketing for Racing Bulls, Red Bull's 'sister' team' in F1, earlier this season. Horner was then spotted heading to a key meeting with Mintzlaff following a desperately disappointing home race in Austria two weekends ago, where it was proposed that Red Bull Austria take full control of marketing for both teams. Even then, there was no inkling that Horner would be sacked so abruptly. The threat of Verstappen departing was seemingly the final straw. That threat, which has been hanging over the team for 18 months, undoubtedly focused minds, not least that of majority owner Yoovidhya. The Thai businessman was a notable absentee from last week's annual pre-Silverstone charity event, jointly hosted by Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell-Horner, in aid of Red Bull spinal injury foundation charity Wings for Life. Yoovidhya backed Horner for as long as he could but has clearly decided things can no longer go on as they are. Horner's sacking seems to be an attempt to keep Verstappen onside, although, unlike his father, he never appeared to have a personal issue with his team principal. And the irony is, even if Verstappen stays next season, he may well leave in 2027, depending on the team's competitiveness next year. 'People are just dumbfounded' Either way, faced with the prospect of another year or more of internal strife and politics, Red Bull's overlords have acted. Horner is understood to have been summoned to a meeting with Mintzlaff and Marko in London on Tuesday, where he was told he was to be 'relieved of his operational duties' but was still technically an employee (pending an enormous pay-off, one presumes, given Horner had more than five years left on his contract). Horner told senior management and then addressed the team on Wednesday. According to witnesses he had to collect himself at one point. There is a poignant element to the timing of this, with Horner's ex-wife Beverley, the father of his 11-year-old daughter Olivia, and with whom he had long since reconciled, dying last week after a long illness. The funeral will be held next week. 'It was pretty emotional,' said a team source. 'Most people have never driven through those gates without Christian in charge. People here are just dumbfounded really.' As is the sport. Red Bull enjoyed one of the most successful eras in Formula One history, with Horner undeniably a shrewd team principal, whatever else one might think of him. He assembled and ran a brilliant team, with Adrian Newey the creative genius, backed by a benign billionaire in Mateschitz, and then perhaps even more impressively kept it together and went on another winning run after Mercedes' years of success. It all came crashing down in the end, amid rancour and division and hubris, with Newey leaving as well as other senior figures such as sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and chief engineering officer Rob Marshall. It remains to be seen where the team go from here, whether other senior figures depart. But it feels like the end of an era.


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Christian Horner sacked by Red Bull after 20 years as principal at F1 team
Christian Horner has been released from his post as Red Bull's team principal with immediate effect. Horner, who was reportedly reduced to tears when he informed his staff, has been in charge of Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005 and will be replaced by Laurent Mekies, the principal of their sister team, Racing Bulls. Horner's surprise removal as principal and chief executive of Red Bull Racing was confirmed in a statement from the team's parent company on Wednesday morning and comes just over 17 months after he was embroiled in a scandal involving accusations of inappropriate behaviour by an employee, though he was later cleared by an investigation. Horner has yet to comment and Red Bull have only issued a statement confirming that Mekies has been appointed as team principal and CEO, with all inquiries relating to the decision to the Red Bull team being directed toward the parent company Red Bull GmbH. However, the former F1 driver Martin Brundle, a friend of Horner, said: 'Christian has told me 'no reason was given to him' as to why he's been released. 'I don't think it is completely out of the blue given the things that are going on and the problems in the team. I am quite sad about it as I consider Christian a friend and he has done an incredible job for 20 years and won an awful lot of races and world championships for drivers and the team. 'But it has not been difficult in the Formula One paddock to observe and hear that things were not particularly rosy.' Having been informed of the decision, an emotional Horner travelled to the team's Milton Keynes factory to tell staff in person. Having done so a statement was publicly released by the parent company. The world champion, Max Verstappen, was not in attendance but he later posted on social media a picture of him celebrating with Horner and wrote: 'From my first race win, to four world championships, we have shared incredible successes. Winning memorable races and breaking countless records. Thank you for everything, Christian.' The statement from Red Bull GmbH read: 'Red Bull has released Christian Horner from his operational duties with effect from today [Wednesday 9 July 2025] and has appointed Laurent Mekies as CEO of Red Bull Racing. Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO Corporate Projects and Investments, thanked Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years.' 'We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years,' said Mintzlaff. 'With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula One. Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.' Under the 51-year-old's leadership Red Bull have won eight drivers' championships and six constructors' championships as one of Formula One's most successful teams. However, during the investigation into Horner's behaviour it was understood there had been a power struggle between Horner and the parent company, with Jos Verstappen, the father of Max, openly calling for him to be removed. Horner appeared to have weathered that storm and attended Silverstone at the weekend and the paddock did not expect his sacking to take place. Horner took on his role when Red Bull bought the ailing Jaguar team at the end of 2004. At 31 he became the youngest team principal in F1 and 20 years later he leaves as the longest serving of the current principals. He oversaw four drivers' and constructors' world championships with Sebastian Vettel between 2010 and 2013 and then a resurgence after seven years of Mercedes dominance for Max Verstappen to take the first of his four consecutive titles in 2021. All of those were in cars designed by Adrian Newey, the most successful designer in F1's modern era, who left to join Aston Martin last year. Horner has enjoyed remarkable success but in the past two years Red Bull have struggled. They have lost key personnel and in 2025 their car has been thoroughly outpaced by McLaren and at times by Mercedes and Ferrari. Verstappen, who was fifth at last weekend's British GP, is now 69 points behind the championship leader, Oscar Piastri, and has conceded he does not believe he is in the title fight. Racing Bulls have confirmed that their racing director, Alan Permane, will replace Mekies as their principal. The 48-year-old Mekies has been team principal at Racing Bulls since the start of 2024 and was previously racing director at Ferrari.