Those very headquarters have seen some ups and they’ve had more than their fair share of downs. After a good debut season, the team seemed to drift backwards somewhat, not earning their debut victory until 1998. What a victory it was, though! A rain-soaked Spa-Francorchamps played host to this special moment for the team, with Damon Hill’s teammate Ralf Schumacher following him home for a coveted Jordan1-2.

Victories came the team’s way again in 1999, even looking like title-contenders during part of the season. However, these two victories would be added to the one from the previous year in the history books – and over the next few seasons, it looked like that tally would never be added to.

It wasn’t until 2003 when another rain-soaked GP proved to favour the Jordan team. Confusion amongst the stewards meant that on the day, Kimi Raikkonen was crowned the victor after the race was red-flagged. Later, though, after a little bit of maths, it was decided that Fisichella was in fact the true winner, and Ron Dennis’ team were forced to hand over the trophy.

After this, Jordan sadly found themselves battling Minardi at the rear end of the grid thanks to an uncompetitive car due to an uncompetitive budget. Eddie Jordan had had enough and knowing he could no longer afford to compete, packed up shop, selling up to Russian billionaire Alex Schnaider.

The team would continue to run under the Jordan name in 2005 with the traditional Jordan bright yellow livery, but it was clearly visible the team had changed hands. The understated launch of the EJ15 would take place on a freezing cold day in Moscow.

The name of the team changed to reflect that of its owners, Midland, in 2006. MF1 Racing sported a new colour scheme, but the team made no big improvement up the grid. Already, Alex Schnaider had decided he wanted out, and the team was sold again, this time on to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker.

Promisingly, Spyker wasted no time in bringing Mike Gascoyne back to the Silverstone factory as technical director. The team also secured a deal to run Ferrari engines for the foreseeable future.

The team’s new line-up of Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers didn’t last long, though. Sutil showed flashes of brilliance, but the inconsistency of Albers put him out-of-favour with the management, and he was gone by mid-season.

The team replaced him for one-race-only with Markus Winkelhock, and despite leading his debut race for a short while in the manic European GP, he was again replaced with Sakon Yamamoto for the rest of the season. The team later went on to score it’s first and only point of the season and were spared finishing last in the Constructors’ Championship thanks only to McLaren being deducted their points.

Rumours were rife that the team would change hands yet again for 2008, and they came true. Spyker’s Director of F1, Michiel Mol formed a consortium with Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya and the team will run under the name Force India F1 for their ’08 campaign in the interests of promoting F1 in the country.

Let’s hope the boys back at Silverstone don’t have new owners by 2009 and can look forward to a decent budget for their next challenger...