THE START OF SOMETHING SPECIAL
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER is sitting on the steps of the Team 7Up Jordan race transporter in Spa-Francorchamps telling me about his brother.
“He’s sixteen,” he says. “Very quick, racing in karts, his name is Ralf.”
It’s Thursday afternoon, August 22, 1991. In my role as press officer, I’m trying to pull together Michael’s biography in order to give the Formula 1 media information about Jordan’s new signing.
We discuss his Formula 3 successes: winning the German F3 title and Macau Grand Prix in 1990 while driving for WTS Racing, the team run by his manager Willi Weber. He tells me about racing in Formula Nippon and his experiences in the World Sportscar Championship with Sauber-Mercedes.
Then I ask him about his experience of racing at Spa, a mere 70 miles away from his hometown of Kerpen in Germany.
“I’ve never raced here,” he says, matter of factly, before adding, “But I did take a bicycle around the track earlier.”
As I take this onboard, I realise our new driver is itching to move on.
“Are we finished?” he says. I let him go. The past twelve days had been a blur. I have a protest march to deal with. Things are not normal.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix our drivers, Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot, had finished seventh and ninth. Indeed, Bertrand had set a new lap record, a late stop for a fresh set of Goodyears giving him the pleasure of running the final laps on low
