Michael Schumacher has pointed the finger at his first formula one boss Eddie Jordan as he recalled his grand prix debut 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
At Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, the seven time world champion is marking the passing of two decades since he burst onto the scene with Jordan.<\/p>\n
It was a one-off event as Schumacher, then 22, was snapped up after Belgium by Benetton after qualifying in seventh place.<\/p>\n
But his actual race lasted less than a lap when he retired with a broken clutch.<\/p>\n
“The story is that we had problems in the warmup,” Schumacher, now racing with Mercedes, wrote in a celebratory column for Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
“I pointed it out at the de-briefing and we talked about whether we should change the clutch or not, but Eddie said that would cost too much money.\u00a0 Then it broke,” added the German.<\/p>\n
Schumacher also recalled how he and his then manager Willi Weber had stayed in a hostel that weekend.<\/p>\n
“I remember I was surprised because I had thought ‘Yes, I am now in formula one, the premier class’.\u00a0 I was not particularly bothered with the hostel except that it was cold and the heater didn’t work,” he said.<\/p>\n
Weber had negotiated his charge’s F1 debut after Jordan regular Bertrand Gachot was jailed for attacking a London taxi driver.<\/p>\n
Weber told Jordan that Schumacher knew Spa well.<\/p>\n
“I have to clarify the story that we lied about it,” Schumacher said.\u00a0 “Eddie had asked Willi if I had raced there before and Willi said yes, because he could not imagine that I had never been there.”<\/p>\n
Jordan reportedly wanted to draft in the experienced Stefan Johansson, but Schumacher’s Sauber-Mercedes sports car team – headed by Peter Sauber – offered $150,000 in sponsorship.<\/p>\n
“That was a pretty penny for a single grand prix,” Sauber told the SID news agency this week.<\/p>\n
The Swiss believes that Mercedes’ other hotshoe, Heinz Harald Frentzen, “had a similar amount of talent and perhaps even a little more”.<\/p>\n
But Schumacher was “a hard worker, very ambitious, mentally strong and also so well prepared physically.\u00a0 It soon became apparent that he was a very special talent”, added Sauber.<\/p>\n
“You also need talent and technical knowledge and if you get all these factors close to 100 per cent, you get Michael Schumacher who wins seven titles.”<\/p>\n
Sauber said Schumacher or Weber never repaid the $150,000.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t have to,” Sauber explained.\u00a0 “He was under contract to us and it was quite normal that we allowed him to have his first race.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately it didn’t work for us because Mercedes didn’t come in as a works team and so we could not keep him.”<\/p>\n
Schumacher retired from F1 at the end of 2006 but returned three years later with Mercedes, where he is under contract for next year and even considering prolonging his comeback.<\/p>\n
Eddie Jordan told The Sun this week: “Michael really is an old fart.\u00a0 He’s had his time.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think his legacy has been affected yet by what has happened in his comeback.\u00a0 But he has to make sure he gets the timing of his exit from F1 right.”<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Schumacher has pointed the finger at his first formula one boss Eddie Jordan as he recalled his grand prix debut 20 years ago. At Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, the seven time world champion is marking the passing of two decades since he burst onto the scene with Jordan. It was a one-off event as Schumacher, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[451,5262,5340,92,90],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13470,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13469\/revisions\/13470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}