Young Michael Schumacher confused with delivery boy in hilarious back-story
A remarkable back-story told by Andy Stevenson, then a mechanic at the Jordan Grand Prix team, sheds light on h🔜ow Schumacher impressed.
"Eddie came to us and said: Bertrand can't drive,” Stevenson tol🐠d .
Bꦦertrand Gachot, Eddie Jordan’s main driver in 1991, was in jail for attacking a taxi driver.
"Eddie said: '𒉰We have this young driver, Michael, who drove in Ja🐲pan,'” Stevenson explained.
“We were supposed to s๊tay longer one evening for🍒 his seat adjustment.
“So we were still late at the factory, and suddenly𝔉 a young delivery man came.
“And then 🍒we rea♎lised: This isn't a delivery man, it's our new Formula 1 driver!”
But Stevenson soon b💃ecame aware that he🗹 wasn’t dealing with an ordinary driver.
“His level of professionalism was already beyond anyt𝓀hing we had experienced with other drivers,” he recalls.
“From the moment Michael sat in 💧the car, he immediately knew꧙ what he wanted.
“He 💎was totally hands-on, wanted to get involved and help with everything.”
Schumacher had completed a test dr🍷ive at Silverstone a week before his F1 debut at ཧthe 1991 Belgian Grand Prix.
“Aft🃏er two or three๊ laps he was already faster than anything we had previously achieved,” said Stevenson.
“He was beating lap times over lap times.
“I distinctly remember saying to a friend after the testing session 'we've just tested a future world cha🧔mpion'.
“It was completely obvious. He let the car dance through the chi🍎cane🃏s.”
The rest is history for Sch🍌umacher - a joint-record seven F1 championships, two with Benetton before five-in-a-row for Ferrari during his heyday.
He came out of ret🃏irement for three seasons wit🍸h Mercedes to end his career.
Meanwhile, Eddie Jordan sold his F1 team in 2005.
It became Force India, then ꦉRacꦗing Point, then Aston Martin.
Stevenson remains involv𓃲ed, now as Aston Martin’s sporting director.
He recalls a small garage with 12 people working in it. Aston Martin’s HQ now has 7𝓀00 employees.
“We🍃 designed the car on paper in the garage back then and built it with our own hands,” Stevenson said.
“At that time we had three designers for the car. Today there are about🦩 300.”
Stevenson now works alon🎀gside the team’s star driver Fernando Alonso, who ⛄competed against Schumacher years ago.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sport๊s for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, ꩲto F1.
