“Schumacher, who?”: A unique career began 30 years ago

It all started in a sparse place with two narrow single beds in the Belgian countryside. For 32 euros you could rent a room at the Auberge Francopole until the very end so you could experience for yourself what it must have been like for Michael Schumacher exactly 30 years ago. The later Formula 1 record world champion and hero of an entire generation spent four nights in this youth hostel before he drove his first Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps on August 25, 1991. This ended after just 500 meters, but it was still a memorable start to a unique career.

And this started with a white lie. Schumacher's manager Willi Weber told team boss Eddie Jordan that the then 22-year-old knew the legendary circuit in the Ardennes very well. But that wasn't true at all. “That's why I grabbed a bike to do a few laps there and I immediately realized what a fantastic track this is,” Schumacher said later.

Schumi felt right at home in Spa. © AFP / PATRICK HERTZOG

Only with this trick and a lot of persuasion from Weber, who shared the dreary room number four in the hostel with his protégé after problems with a hotel booking, did the Kerpen native get Bertrand Gachot's cockpit. The Frenchman had to go to prison for a short time because of an attack with gas on a taxi driver in London. Favorite route Spa “Schumacher, who?” the charismatic Jordan is said to have asked when Weber suggested the German as a replacement. But Schumacher was able to impress with his incomparable driving style in a test at Silverstone and was allowed to get behind the wheel of the Jordan 191 in Spa. “I got my chance and I took advantage of it,” said Schumacher. “I dreamed of Formula 1, but I never imagined that it would actually work.”

In qualifying he achieved a sensational seventh place and it was assumed that he would have won his first race if clutch damage hadn't slowed him down in the first kilometer. And so he didn't win until a year later. Of course in Spa, on the track where he showed his skills like no other. He celebrated six of his 91 career victories in Belgium. The seven-time world champion loved the hilly course with the legendary uphill courage curve Eau Rouge, which is actually not at all for beginners. Broken stopwatch or just too good? “Michael was the most impressive person to ever make a debut in one of my cars. A question arose: either the stopwatch was broken or this kid was damn good,” Jordan said years later. Schumacher only stayed with him for one race and then moved to Benetton; his brother Ralf later completed 33 Grand Prix for the dazzling Irishman's racing team.

“I will always remember this car, that’s clear,” Michael Schumacher once said about his debut car. This was currently for sale at the British car dealer Speedmaster: The green and blue speedster, which is more reminiscent of a small soapbox compared to today's Formula 1,45 cars, cost 1 million euros. The public doesn't know how he is doing Schumacher's son Mick recently drove the car at Silverstone and proudly posted a photo of it on social media. The 22-year-old is emulating his father and although he has not yet scored any World Championship points in his debut season, he has made a successful debut with the defeated US racing team Haas. He will be competing in a Formula 15.10 car for the first time in Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday (1:XNUMX p.m.).

Father Michael will not be on the track then. He suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a fatal skiing accident in 2013 and fought for his life for days. Schumi is still suffering from the consequences today; details about his health are not known.

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“Schumacher, who?”: A unique career began 30 years ago

Maybe Michael Schumacher would have won his first race in Formula 1. But things turned out differently. A very special career began in Spa-Francorchamps on August 25, 1991.

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