'Flavio discovered Schumacher' story exaggerated

Ross Brawn has revealed that the tale of Flavio Briatore discovering Michael Schumacher is a bit exaggerated.

Little was known about Schumacher until he made his debut at Spa in 1991, where he finished seventh.

Brawn revealed that Briatore hadn’t seen the German race until his stunning debut: “The problem is we had two drivers in the car [Moreno and Piquet] and Jordan had a spare seat and we were trying to convince Flavio that we should be fairly drastic in the change, but he wasn’t convinced because he knew nothing about Michael Schumacher.” Said Brawn to the Beyond the Grid podcast.

After his Belgian debut Schumacher signed for Benetton from Jordan and went on to win two world titles with the constructors in 1994 and 95 and Brawn reflected on his early days with the team.

“Very inquisitive and very keen to learn.” Added Brawn.