Michael Schumacher told Eddie Jordan a cheeky ‘lie’ to get his F1 debut

“Sensational. But first he lied to me."

It turned out to be a one-off race for the team before the talented German was poached by Benetton.

A week before the race at Spa, Jordan driver Bertrand Gachot had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a road rage incident in London.

Eddie Jordan called up the 22-year-old Schumacher, who was a Formula Three title winner and contracted to Mercedes.

However, in 2021, Jordan revealed to F1 Insider that he would not have given Schumacher his debut had he known a crucial piece of information about his experience at Spa.

He said:

Dubliner Jordan then went on to describe just how good this future legend of the sport was in his earliest days as an F1 driver.

He added: “The test drive before [Spa] was a wonder of the world. I had only experienced such a presence of a young guy, such talent, such incredible speed, such confidence once before – with Ayrton Senna.

“With both of them, it was like suddenly turning on the lights in a dark room. Michael drove incredible times straight away in an old overall of John Watson.

“We gave Michael a lot of laps at his first test in Silverstone because we were afraid he wouldn’t be able to do it. Then his race engineer called me and said ‘Eddie, something’s wrong here – either they’ve shortened the course or this kid is incredibly fast’.”