Former F1 driver and Michael Schumacher's brother Ralf shared that he was threatened by his former team boss Eddie Jordan during the 1998 season.
Michael Schumacher's brother claimed that the 1998 Jordan car wasn't as competitive, as he and then-teammate Damon Hill had to push the car to the extreme to extract performance.
The results and the preferential treatment toward Hill weren't entirely helping the German in the team, leading to Ralf Schumacher leaving the team at the end of the season.
While appearing on the Formula for Success podcast and reflecting on his exit, Schumacher cleared the air around Jordan's claims that he left the team for Williams for money. He said:
"You forgot why? You really forgot why. EJ called me and told me that we know that we have a sh*tty car but we desperately need the points before Silverstone. And he told me if you don't score the points, you are out of the car."
He added:
"After that, I hung up the phone and called Williams and said, 'Okay, whatever happens, we need to look for something else because I'm not gonna work with this guy anymore after this season'."
Michael Schumacher's brother vouches for Otmar Szafnauer for Haas F1 role
Michael Schumacher's brother Ralf stated that Haas should pursue former Alpine and Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer for their Europe-based COO to manage non-competition matters.
While speaking about Szafnauer's experience, Michael Schumacher's brother told Formula1.de’s YouTube channel:
“Otmar is someone who is well-known in Formula 1 and who also has expertise. One thing is technical expertise. But the other thing is to go out and look for good minds, sometimes at universities. Having this foresight and generating new people to take the team forward is a skill that I trust Otmar to have. I can’t imagine Mattia Binotto doing that. He’s also more associated with Audi."
"But I don’t quite see how that fits in with Andreas Seidl [Sauber Group CEO]. I’m curious about that. Szafnauer knows small structures and can get a lot out of them. That is also crucial. What’s the point of getting someone who previously had 1,000 people under him? He’ll find it difficult at first.”
It will be fascinating to see who Haas hires for such an important position as former team principal Guenther Steiner was a 'brand' in himself given his popularity in the sport, which helped attract sponsors for the team.