The Jordan 191
This is the 1991 Jordan-Ford 191, Chassis no. 191/6, in which Michael Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut.
““Following a brief shakedown at Silverstone South Circuit...chassis 05 was...transported directly to Spa. I was Michael Schumacher’s race engineer on his debut...During the early part of FP1 (first practice, first session) Michael had immediately gone faster than Andrea (de Cesaris, his national team leader), as a result Andrea requested to switch to the T car (04). Shortly after the switch Michael’s race car had developed a small water leak from the water pump which required the engine to be removed. Andrea seemed happy to stay in the spare car, so we switched Michael into Andrea’s race car (06) for the remainder of FP1, finishing the session 8th overall and faster than Andrea...”.”
… And, in final official qualifying, Michael achieved a lap time in his reassembled race car – chassis 05 – which was still 0.774secs faster than the senior man. This is the Jordan-Ford chassis serial '191/6' in which the great Schumacher made his initial impact upon the Grand Prix racing world on the opening day of that race meeting at Spa-Francorchamps on August 23, 1991. While McLaren-Honda dominated qualifying with Ayrton Senna in pole position and team-mate Alain Prost second, behind them in that startling seventh place on the starting grid was Michael Schumacher, by that time back in his originally assigned car, chassis '191/5'. Unfortunately, the young newcomer's overnight celebrity received a salutary humility lesson as – unaccustomed to a racing standing start with full fuel load, he burned out the clutch and retired before the second corner on the opening lap.
But as Trevor Foster has recounted "That weekend at Spa was memorable for a number of reasons including Michael's debut, coming agonizingly close to Jordan's first podium in our first season of Formula 1 and proved that our small team could take on the established manufacturers, laying the foundations for the future success of the time".
Jordan-Ford 191 designer and the Jordan team's chief engineer, Gary Anderson, remarked after that remarkable debut performance: "The thing that impresses me is that he hasn't even worked up a sweat!".
This Jordan-Ford 191's full racing record for the 1991 World Championship season has been recorded as follows:
August 11, 1991 – Hungarian GP, Hungaroring – Andrea de Cesaris – q.17th – 7th
August 25, 1991 – Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps – Andrea de Cesaris – q.11th – DNF
September 8, 1991 – Italian GP, Monza – spare car for Andrea de Cesaris/Roberto Moreno
September 22, 1991 – Portuguese GP, Estoril – spare car for de Cesaris/Moreno
September 29, 1991 – Spanish GP, Barcelona – spare car for de Cesaris/Alessandro Zanardi (practiced by him)
October 20, 1991 – Japanese GP, Suzuka – spare car for de Cesaris/Zanardi
November 3, 1991 – Australian GP, Adelaide – spare car for de Cesaris/Alessandro Zanardi (practiced by him)
But the rather excitable Belgian driver Gachot was struck mid-season by a court case in London which saw him convicted of having used CS gas supposedly to defend himself in a traffic incident, resulting in an 18-month prison sentence.
This triggered Eddie Jordan's quest for a replacement driver for the next race in Belgium, and he selected the young German Mercedes-Benz endurance racing star, Michael Schumacher for that opportunity. It rapidly became apparent that this was one of the most fortuitous moments in Jordan's career. Schumacher created instant sensation, as one report put it "...a complete natural who immediately made himself at home by taking seventh place on the grid at a circuit (Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Belgian GP) he had never seen before. His race was short-lived, due to clutch trouble, but Jordan had a winner on his hands.
"Not for long. By the time the teams rolled into Monza a fortnight later.... Jordan, the arch wheeler-dealer, discovered he had been out-maneuvered as Schumacher's advisors offered the 22-year-old German to Benetton-Ford. Benetton did not need to be asked twice...". And in 1994 Schumacher would win the first of his record seven Drivers' World Championship titles – while characteristically "hardly working up a sweat"...
Here's that car, in some photos with Michaels' son Mick driving it at Silverstone on July 20, 2021.
““Driving-wise, unfortunately I didn’t have a seat in it, only a bit of foam, I was sliding around a lot – especially every braking I was sliding so far down I couldn’t see the track anymore – so after every braking I had to push myself back up to see something,” said the 22-year-old, but the emotions, and feeling and knowing that my dad raced this car as his first race car, is very special.””
