I don’t normally post here as I don’t follow F1 but I was at a talk with one of Eddie Jordans right hand men Mark Gallagher the other day and thought I’d share one of the stories he told us.
Now correct me on the details cos I dont follow F1 at all but I think it was the French GP. Was a really showery day. McLaren had the latest weather satellite systems costing 10s of thousands to run, Ferrari had a helicopter flying around the city predicting the weather fronts and Jordan had a service from the MET office cost approx 2k a year they faxed them the morning of the race. Fax came through and the message was 'changeable' So they had no idea what the weather was going to do.
One of the catering fellas was serving food to the team and heard them talking about the problem and said well during the race I literally have nothing to do. Why don't I take one of those scooters and drive off a few miles and radio back in whats happening. Eddie Jordan said nah mate you're ok sure how would we even know what direction to send you in but thanks for the offer.
So a few laps into the race all the teams are barely fuelling and changing tyres regularly. On one of the laps theyre talking to the drivers when this voice comes over the radio: Hello? One of the drives says whos this? Its Dave here from catering
So he had come through on Channel 1 the drivers channel. They change his channel and the team are going nuts with him. WTF Dave?? what are you doing?
well I'm standing in a field about 3 miles from the track and its bloody pouring down here!!! So they start saying well its facking raining here too mate! Tell us something we dont know! So he says Im telling you its lashing, this is down for the day!
So they say to him ok Dave what makes you such an expert in weather? He says well I'm from Aberdeen I know facking rain!!
So they had nothing to lose. They call the driver in, fuel it to the brim and put new wets on. Driver leaves the pit lane and he radios back saying WTF how much fuel did you put in this thing? Anyway apparently they went on to win the race all thanks to Dave from catering
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Jordan F1 Story
comment by Teebs (U1060)
posted on 12/2/13
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
comment by appspur - The North Remembers (U16300)
posted on 12/2/13
Classic Dave
comment by WTCBU (U13662)
posted on 12/2/13
Probably French GP, Magny-Cours, June 28, 1999.
http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr637.html
comment by ManUtdDaredevil (U9612)
posted on 13/2/13
Good job Dave
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