Twenty years ago today, a certain Michael Schumacher began his remarkable Formula One racing career.
With Bertrand Gachot missing his home race at Spa due to a prison sentence in the UK for assault, Schumacher was plucked from racing Mercedes sportscars to drive for Jordan, as former team boss (now UK TV pundit) Eddie Jordan likes to remind people (often). The 22-year-old wasted no time in making an impression, sealing seventh in his first qualifying session – and this after his manager Willi Weber had bent the truth about Schumacher’s experience of Spa. He actually had none – and the young German had quietly done his own recce of the track on a pushbike.
The 1991 Belgian Grand Prix itself had plenty of excitement, with the usual tussling between the established top men of the time, Alain Prost (who retired after his Ferrari caught fire), Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and, of course, Ayrton Senna, who won the race despite a faulty gearbox in his McLaren and after fighting with Mansell for the lead until the Englishman’s Williams failed with electronic problems. (These weren’t the days of 24-car finishes like we have now.) There was a dangerous spin for Gerhard Berger which didn’t stop the Austrian from finishing second in his McLaren ahead of Piquet in the Benetton, but Schumacher was, sadly for him, not to be involved in such battles quite yet. His Jordan 191’s clutch failed on lap 1, and despite having already made up one place to sixth at the start, it was ‘Michael Schumacher – DNF’.
What happened next?
As we all know, Schumacher went on to become the most successful driver in the sport’s history, with 91 wins and seven world championships the reflection in stats of his huge talent. He’s also been involved in much controversy down the years, and both these factors were in evidence early on, as he slipped through Jordan’s fingers and switched to Benetton for the very next race in Italy, leading to a failed legal challenge to keep him at the team in Gachot’s continuing absence. Schumi immediately claimed fifth place in that race at Monza, slightly embarrassing three-time world champion team-mate Piquet in his 200th GP, who finished a place behind him, and followed it up with sixth places in both Portugal and Spain. His first win came at Spa the following year after he’d driven the Benetton to his debut pole position. He won back-to-back titles for Benetton in 1994 and ’95 before switching to Ferrari and slowly reviving the Scuderia’s legend and securing his own with five consecutive titles from 2000–2004.
Want more?
- Jenson on the Button at the Hungarian Grand Prix
- Official Schumi website michael-schumacher.de
- More F1 at formula1.com
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