One Of Eddie Jordan's Drivers Went To Jail For Assault, So He Took A Chance On Michael Schumacher

Edmund Patrick Jordan's death will bring a heavy cloud over the Formula 1 circus in the coming weeks, but his legacy as one of the greatest independent constructors in the sport's history will always stand. I didn't watch much F1 until after his team was already on the downward slide, but his later years as a tech commentator and colorful television personality are ones that I will remember fondly. Looking back on his long career in the sport I am reminded of perhaps the best story ever told, how Eddie Jordan was in a bind when one of his drivers went to jail and took a flyer on a relatively unknown young German driver who would go on to become one of the best the sport has ever seen. It's a weird and mixed up tale involving an assault with teargas. 

Eddie's eponymous Jordan Grand Prix joined the F1 grid as a brand new team for the 1991 season, hiring Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian racer Bertrand Gachot to do the driving. Trouble for the team began way before anyone got the chance to turn a wheel in anger. In December of 1990, while en route to a meeting with Pepsi executives to secure 7Up sponsorship for the season, Gachot had a dust up with a London cabbie. According to re-tellings of the story, Gachot had rear-ended the cab and its driver got out looking for a fight. Yada, yada, yada, Gachot tear gassed the man. Somehow, despite all that, the deal with Pepsi was secured and Gachot went on to drive for Team 7Up Jordan in the 1991 Formula 1 season. He also famously drove to victory at the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans in the legendary Mazda 787B. Then, in the middle of a mostly successful team debut season, Gachot's actions caught up to him and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. 

"He grabbed me by the tie, and I just didn't even think." claimed Gachot of the assault on the "Formula For Success" podcast in 2024. "I just took the spray, and defended myself. Then the police came because I called the police like an idiot, because the guy didn't want to get out of the car – he was in my car. He said, 'I'm calling the police, I'm not moving for me until the police come'."

Bertrand accepted his fate and was given a late August court date. The Jordan F1 driver flew to the UK to stand for sentencing ahead of a planned test and the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps. He expected "to get a slap on the wrist or a fine... I had asked multiple lawyers about it, and they all said the same, but the judge wanted to make an example." While Gachot only ended up serving two months in jail after a massive motorsport-wide campaign on his behalf, the Formula One show must go on and so it did. It's hard to race in the Belgian Grand Prix when you're in jail across the channel. 

Suddenly in a desperate position for a replacement driver at Spa Francorchamps, Eddie Jordan started making calls. Ever the businessman, Jordan was looking for a driver who could not only do the job of getting the car around the circuit, but he wanted to make a bit of money in the process. The 22-year-old Michael Schumacher, then a contracted driver with the Sauber Mercedes sports car team and 1990 Macau Grand Prix champ, was available for the seat and Mercedes was willing to give Jordan $150,000 to get Michael into F1. Jordan asked Schumacher for his CV and probed whether the young German had ever been to Spa. When Michael responded that he had indeed been to Spa before, he didn't disclose that he'd been as a spectator, not as a racer. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have let him drive," said Jordan. Schumacher was hardly a proven talent in 1991, but once he stepped into an F1 cockpit he really found where he belonged. The man who would become 7-time world champion got his F1 start in a recalcitrant Jordan 191 with a single session of practice before qualifying the car in 7th, which Jordan proclaimed to have been "like pole to us."

Schumacher's race would end just half a mile into the Grand Prix when his car's clutch smoked out, but the Benneton team saw his potential and signed him to their team for the remainder of 1991. Jordan, for his part, filed an injunction claiming finders keepers rules on Schumacher as his driver, but because the contract between Jordan and Schumacher had never been ratified a judge threw it out and Benneton got their driver. The rest is history, as you well know.

Despite the legal and contractual dramas, Schumacher and Jordan remained quite close for decades. When Schumacher finished his 300th Grand Prix in 2012 Jordan was among the first to congratulate him on a lengthy and successful career, presenting him with a fresh Jordan 191 clutch.

The sport simply won't be as bombastic and dramatic, nor kind and caring, without Jordan around.