Young Michael Schumacher confused with delivery boy in hilarious back-story
A remarkable ba🌠ck-story told by Andy Stevenson, then a mechanic at the Jordan Grand Prix team, sheds light on how Schumacher impressed.
"Eddie came to us and said: Bert🧸rand can't drive,” Stevenson told .
Bertrand Gachot, Eddie Jordan’s main driver in 1991, was i🥂n jail for attacking a taxi driver.
"Eddie sai📖d: 'We have this young driver, Michael, who drove in Japan,'” Stevenson explained.
“We were suppose🌌d to stay🎉 longer one evening for his seat adjustment.
“So we were still late at the 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 dealing with an ordinary🅘 driver.
“His level of profess🦄ionalism was already beyond anything we had experienced with other drivers,” he recalls. 🌳;
“From the moment Michael sat in the car, he i𓃲mmediately knew what he😼 wanted.
“He was total🍰ly hands-on, wanted to ge🗹t involved and help with everything.”
Schumacher had completed a t𓆏est♎ drive at Silverstone a week before his F1 debut at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix.
“𝐆After two or three laps he was already faster than a✃nything we had previously achieved,” said Stevenson.
“He was beating lap times over lap times.
“I distinctly remember saying to a f⛄riend after theཧ testing session 'we've just tested a future world champion'.
“It was completely obvious. He let the car🐎 dance through the chicanes.”
The rest is history for Schumacher - a joint-record seven F1 championships, two with Benetton before five-in-a-row for Ferrari during🏅 his heyday.
He came ou🐭t𓂃 of retirement for three seasons with Mercedes to end his career.
Meanwhile, Eddie Jordan sold his F1 team in 2005.
It became Force India, then Racing ﷽Point, then Aston Martin.
Steve𒁃nson remains involved, now as Aston Martin’s spo🐓rting director.
He recalls a small garage with 12 people working in it. Aston Martin’s H♏Q now has 700 employees.
“We designed the car on paper in the garage back♚ then and built it with our own hands,”෴ Stevenson said.
“At th🍸at time we had three designers for the car. Today there are ab💜out 300.”
Stevenson now works along🥃side the team’s star driver Fernando Alonso, who competed against Schumacher years ago.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering ﷺeverything from American sports, to football,🔥 to F1.
