Back before he became the legendary Michael Schumacher we knew today, the German driver started out in F1 by scheduling a testing session at Silverstone, with Jordan. However, it was not the track was booked by British Golf legend Nick Faldo, which put a roadblock to Schumacher’s planned outing This was as serious issue for Eddie Jordan’s team and Schumacher as the season was fast approaching.
Years later Jordan opened up about how Faldo helped them go ahead with the test. In return, he wanted a compromise, or a favor. Jordan spoke about this in the Formula For Success podcast with David Coulthard.
He said, “Once upon a time I desperately needed to test a car at Silverstone. Because we needed to run a driver who never run in Formula 1 before. And we were going to run him at a race.” But I couldn’t get onto Silverstone because it had been booked by somebody.”
Jordan went on to say that he had an important meet-up with Faldo where he wanted a “massive-massive” favor from the renowned golfer and was even ready to compromise. After a fair discussion, it was decided that Faldo would allow Schumacher to have his testing in Silverstone.
In return, Jordan needed to make sure Faldo, who is six feet four inches tall manages to get inside his F1 car and drive.
Faldo was a six-time major winner in Golf and was labeled as a “petrol head” by Jordan. Nevertheless, Faldo was later over the moon at the fact that the driver that drove with his permission in Silverstone that day, went on to became arguably the greatest of all time. That testing carried out with Schumacher, however, was fairly controversial.
How Michael Schumacher got his Jordan ride
Mercedes wanted to help Michael Schumacher drive for Sauber back in 1991. Bernie Ecclestone, however, convinced Eddie Jordan to take him instead. In return, Ecclestone asked Jordan to take as much money as possible and revive themselves from the money crunch.
In the end, both parties agreed to have Mercedes pay Jordan $190,000 per race for Schumacher. As per the agreement, the young Schumacher tested for Jordan and raced in his first GP for Jordan’s team in place of imprisoned Bertrand Gachot.
However, the German’s time with Jordan didn’t last very long as he moved to Benetton that year itself. With Benetton, he began to show his potential and soon he became the most exciting driver on the grid.
Eventually, in 1994, Michael Schumacher claimed his first F1 world championship with Benetton and retained the title in 1995. It was just the beginning for him as he switched to Ferrari for new challenges in 1996 and it eventually gave him the GOAT status after winning five more championships with the Maranello-based outfit.
