“But who is Michael Schumacher?”
When Bertrand Gachot was jailed in August 1991, because of a ‘dispute’ with a cab driver in London, Willy Weber, manager of Michael Schumacher, tried to get hold of Eddie Jordan, with the intention to convince the Irish team owner, to give his protégé a chance to drive in his car in the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Willy Weber remembers: “Eddie was on holiday in Spain at the time. I think I spent 500 pounds on phone calls from my hotel at the Nürburgring. I searched for Eddie and then the negotiations began. I said, ‘Eddie, please give him a chance.’ Eddie said, ‘But who is Michael Schumacher?”
Willy Weber finally succeeded to convince Jordan, by agreeing to pay the demanded sum of money (150000$ for one race, paid by Mercedes, thanks to Jochen Neerpasch’s mediation), but also by telling him that Michael had already driven at Spa (in endurance), but that was absolutely not true!
Picture below: Michael Schumacher (Jordan 191), on his way to a sensational 7th place on the grid, in front of his team mate Andrea de Cesaris, at Spa in 1991. He would retire on the first lap with a broken clutch, but had made enough of an impression, and by the next race, he was in a Benetton. History was in the making.
