Martin Donnelly

Martin Donnelly (born 26 March 1964 in Belfast) is a British retired racing driver who formerly took part in Formula One.

He won the Formula 3000 title in 1988 driving for Middlebridge Racing and after finishing third overall in 1989 for CoBRa Motorsports, he was signed by Tyrrell for the 1990 Formula One season as the replacement for outgoing Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima. However, the team struggled and Donnelly did not score points that year - his teammate, the talented French Sicilian Jean Alesi could only muster a single point from Spa.

After moving to Jordan in 1991, Donnelly endured a much better season and brought home the team's first ever podium finish at the French Grand Prix. Consistently good results throughout the season meant that Donnelly would finish in ninth place overall. However, Jordan ended up overpaying on their first F1 car and suffered from financial issues which saw them use Yamaha engines in 1992 alongside car company Venturi buying a stake at the team and naming rights for that year - Donnelly thus suffered through the whole season without scoring any points and his best finish being an 8th place at the season-opening South African Grand Prix. The Ulsterman still signed a new 2-year deal in August, however he had an option to leave after one year if results didn't improve.

Results did indeed improve in 1993 as Jordan axed Yamaha engined in favour for customer Ford HBA engines, which were used by Benetton Arrows the year before. Donnelly was now paired with another Ulsterman in Eddie Irvine as well as the Italian veteran Teo Fabi who covered for Irvine when he had to fulfill his duties in Japan. The season was moderately successful for Donnelly and Jordan; while not as good as 1991, Donnelly scored 7 points, which came from a 4th place in Canada and two 5th places in the last two Grands Prix of the season.

1994 saw essentially no changes to the team, with the same sponsorship, driver lineup - Irvine now raced full-time - and engine supplier. Sadly, results changed for the worse: while the Jordan 194 was able to score points on a couple occasions, the team's best result all season was 6th place. Donnelly was outscored by Irvine 2 to 1, with Donnelly's younger compatriot finishing sixth in two races. In an attempt to rekindle previous year's form following a period of drought (Donnelly did not score a single point since the 2nd race of the season), Eddie Jordan opted for a difficult move and after a tenure of 4 seasons and 62 races, Donnelly was let go following a mutual agreement. His replacement, who ironically turned out to be his former teammate Jean Alesi could not score points, either.

Donnelly did not return to F1 after the tragic 1994 season and moved to sportscar and touring car racing.

Racing History

Complete International Formula 3000 results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1988	Middlebridge Racing	March 88-B	Ford Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8	JER Ret	IMO Ret	PAU Ret	SIL 1	MNZ Ret	PER Ret	BHA Ret	BIR 1	BUG 1	ZOL 1	DIJ Ret	1st	36
1989	CoBRa Motorsports	Lola T89/50	Ford Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8	SIL 4	IMO Ret	PAU Ret	JER Ret	ASS 2							3rd	23
		Reynard 89D	Ford Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8						PER Ret	BHA 1	BIR 4	SPA Ret	LEM 5	DIJ Ret

Complete Formula One World Championship Grand Prix Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1990	Rothmans Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 019	Ford DFR 3.5 V8	USA 8	BRA Ret	PAC DNQ	SMR DNQ	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	MEX 15	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 10	ITA 13	POR 11	JPN 15	AUS 18		NC	0
1991	Team 7Up Jordan	Jordan 191	Ford HBA4 3.5 V8	USA 11	BRA 9	PAC 6	SMR 5	MON Ret	CAN 6	MEX 6	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 7†	BEL 9	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 4	JPN Ret	AUS‡ 12	9th	12
1992	Sasol Venturi Jordan Yamaha	Venturi 192	Yamaha OX99 3.5 V12	RSA 8	MEX Ret	BRA 16	PAC 16†	ESP Ret	SMR 14	MON 13	CAN Ret	FRA 12	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 15	ITA Ret	POR 15†	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	NC	0
1993	Sasol Jordan	Jordan 193	Ford HBA7 3.5 V8	RSA Ret	BRA 13	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 7	MON 8	CAN 4	FRA 8	GBR 8	GER Ret	HUN 11	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN 5	AUS 5		15th	7
1994	Sasol Jordan	Jordan 194	Ford HBC7/8 3.5 V8	BRA Ret	PAC 6	SMR 8	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 11	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 16	BEL 11	ITA 10	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS		20th	1