Judas Jordan On Schumacher

Eddie Jordan has been speaking a lot lately since he sold the Jordan team and retired. He talks about some of the decisions he's made in the past, like firing Frentzen for instance. He's called upon teams to go with his good mate, Bernie Ecclestone, and sign the new Concorde for the good of the sport.

Recently, in these stories here and here, Eddie Jordan claims that he did not want to hire Schumacher back in 1991 to replace Betrand Gachot in the Jordan 191. Apparently, Michael's willingness to pay for the ride led to his seat in the Belgian Grand Prix of that year. Apparently, Bernie was desperate for Michael to be in Formula 1 to tap the German market.

Hmm... Goes to show, you can't really trust Formula 1 personalities. I remember 1991 very clearly. Subsequent to his stunning debut in the Jordan, Michael was then poached by Benetton to Eddie Jordan's chagrin. In fact, Judas Jordan kicked a big fuss about it in the press. The hoopla was enough to lead to the creation of the Contract Recognition Board. This doesn't sound like a man who didn't want Michael to be in his cars.

But even before the Belgian GP, Jordan had tested Schumacher and found him unbelievably quick. Like Senna and Prost before him, Michael exhibited the signs of someone who simply knew how things worked in the sport. I certainly remember Eddie Jordan being highly enthusiastic about the German wunderkind. Or perhaps that was just a bit of show, as Eddie Jordan is inevitably famous for.

Whatever it was, perhaps it was for the best that Schumacher ended up with Benetton. Had he stayed with Jordan in 1992, he'd have ended up with a real dog of a car to drive. The Jordan-Yamaha B192 was super slow, the Yamaha engine unable to muster much grunt on the straights. But they weren't the slowest on the straights that year. No, sir. That honour fell to twin floored Ferrari driven by Jean Alesi and Ivan Capelli. Sigh. Those were the good old days then.