The 1997 line-up
The 1997 it was a season of great changes for the Jordan, who showed up at that world championship with a totally different pair of drivers compared to that of the previous world championship. In fact, Martin Brundle and Rubens Barrichello were promoted from one side to replace them Ralf Schumacherbrother of Michael and fresh from victory in Formula Nippon in 1996, and on the other the Roman Giancarlo Fisichella. Unlike Schumacher, 'Physicist' he took part in that championship after his debut in F1 a year earlier, in that case with Minardi.
A season not without tensions
Even today, that World Cup presents conflicting memories for Eddie Jordan, historic founder of the team. Along with many 'highs', there were in fact some 'lows' which saw both drivers involved in contacts, such as the one that occurred during the Argentine Grand Prix. One in particular, however, sent the Irish entrepreneur into a rage, as the latter admitted in the podcast 'Formula for Success'.
The accident at the start
The 75-year-old lost his temper at Nürburgringthen the seat of the Luxembourg Grand Prix. On that occasion, Schumacher started from eighth position on the starting grid, coming alongside Fisichella at the first corner, who had instead started from 4th place. The German, in an attempt to overtake on the inside, however hit his teammate's car, taking flight and landing on his brother's Ferrari.
Jordan's reaction
With that contact, the two Jordan riders ended the GP prematurely in the gravel: “I lost my mind – explained Jordan regarding the accident – even in the most liberal country in the world my words would have been censored. I was very brutal towards them, telling him that they were two emeritus c******. I told them they didn't deserve to be in that car and that I would have them both fired“. In the following minutes, once calm had partially been restored, Jordan added other details: “I have never been able to laugh about them because I think they cost us a lot – he continued – I felt very good about our team and we thought we had some brilliant engineers. It was a shame for the riders to crash like that. It seemed to me that they had little regard for the team“.
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