Young Michael Schumacher confused with delivery boy in hilarious back-story
A remarkable back-sto🥃ry told by Andy Stevenson, then a mechanic ♕at the Jordan Grand Prix team, sheds light on how Schumacher impressed.
"Eddie came to us and ꧒said: Bertrand can't drive,” St✱evenson told .
Bertrand Gachot, Eddie Jordan’s main driver in 1991, was in jail for attacking a 📖taxi driver.
"Eddie said: 'We have this young driver, Michael, who drove iᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn Japan,'” Stevenson explai🐎ned.
“W📖e were supposed to stay longer one evening for his seat adjustment.
“So we were still late at t♏he factory, and suddenly a 🍰young delivery man came.
“And then we realised: This isn't a delivery man, it's 🌊our new Formula🥂 1 driver!”
But Stevenson soon became aware that he wasn’t d🐠ealing with an ཧordinary driver.
“His level of professionalism was already beyond anything we had experience💧d with other drivers,” he recalls.
“𒆙From the moment M🌞ichael sat in the car, he immediately knew what he wanted.
“He was❀ totally hands-on, wanted to get involv💯ed and help with everything.”
Schum꧙acher had completed a test drive at Silverstone a week before his F1 debut at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix.
“After two or three laps he was already f𝔉aster than anything we had previously achieved,” said🍸 Stevenson.
“He was beating lap times over lap times.
“I distinctly remember saying to a frien🔯d after the testing session 'we've just tested a future world championꦚ'.
“It was completely obvious. 🧜He let the car dance througꦚh the chicanes.”
The rest is history for Schuma🔯cher - a joint-record seven F1 championships, two with Benetton before five-in-a-row for Ferrari during his heyday.
He came out of retirement for th𓄧ree seasons wi⛦th Mercedes to end his career.
Meanwhile, Eddie Jordan sold his F1 team in 2005.
It became Force India, then Racing Point, then Aston Martin♚.
Stevenson remains involved, now as Aston Martin’s sporting directo𝄹r.
He recalls a small garage with 12 people working in it. Aston🌳 Martin’s HQ now has 700 employeꦆes.
“We designed the car on paper in the garage ಞback th๊en and built it with our own hands,” Stevenson said.
“At that time we had three designers for the car. Today therꦕe are about 300.”
Stevenson now wor🃏ks alongside the team’s star driver Fernando Alonso, who competed against Schumacher years ago.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Spor🐻ts for a decade covering everything from American sports, to foo🐼tball, to F1.
