Irvine wouldn't have cost Jordan a bean.

Freebie
By Phil Giles
January 25 2003

Team sponsors Benson and Hedges are stunned at Eddie Irvine's decision to retire from Formula One according to the UK's Sun Newspaper. Irvine has stated that he was entirely prepared to drive for Jordan for free but Jordan required £3million in sponsorship for the drive.

From the start money has never been the issue. I have always tried to earn a reasonable wage from the sport but when a team has no money in the kitty it become a pointless exercise,” he told the paper.  “I know there were people thinking I was seeking a 'pension drive' by going to Jordan but nothing could be further from the truth. I wanted to drive for them and prove a few things to a few people. Jordan would not have had to have paid me a bean. I was prepared to look for personal sponsorship and to sell space on my overalls and a small part of the car. I could not have been fairer than that. The one thing which I wasn't going to do was to pay the team for the drive. That was never on."

It therefore seems a shame that Irvine has pulled out of negotiations.  It is known that Benson and Hedges would increase their sponsorship if the team signed a British driver.  It's not feasible that Eddie had not been told this unless of course Eddie's spent the last months on a very remote piste.

Perhaps Jordan would have been happy to allow Eddie to drive if Benson and Hedges could have confirmed their intentions sooner.  Maybe it's not too late for Irvine to reverse his decision.