Schumi's toughest battle

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

As fans of the legendary Italian car manufacturer Ferrari gather outside the Grenoble hospital in France to hold a silent vigil, the world of motorsport and particularly Grand Prix racing says a prayer, holds its breath and hopes that the greatest driver of his generation and possibly of all-time pulls through.

Friday, 3 January marked the 45^th birthday of the seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher but he would have known nothing about it. The former Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes GP driver has now been in an induced coma for a week after a skiing accident whilst on a family holiday in the French Alps.

Michael Schumacher faces his toughest battle - this one to survive

This isn’t going to be a piece about why the accident happened, or what might have saved Schumacher’s life, nor will it look into the consequences of skiing in the slopes. This will be looking at Michael Schumacher (pictured) the man, Michael Schumacher the racing driver and now the human being who is fighting for his life in a French hospital as we all hope he makes a complete recovery from the serious brain injuries suffered.

While my recent F1 2013 season review before Christmas was my last regular piece on the sport for this website, I felt this was something I wanted and needed to write about. There is no doubt that Schumacher has his millions of fans around the world and others who put him down as an arrogant, smut and petulant German who would win at all costs, even if that meant bending the rules to do so. However I’m sure we can all unite in saying that he needs to come through this barrier and that he is among the best that have ever driven a Grand Prix car.

The arguments will reign on to who is the greatest. Was it Juan Manuel Fangio at a time where drivers were racing with no safety restrictions and consequently, accidents were often fatal? Was it Ayrton Senna – the iconic Brazilian who showed the first signs of ruthlessness required to become a multiple world champion and died doing what he loved? Is it even Schumacher’s countryman Sebastian Vettel, who is sweeping all before him and could well surpass Michael’s records in the years to come? It is a debate that will rage on for years but Schumacher has to be placed among the best. The stats will back this up too. 91 wins, seven world championships, 68 pole positions, over 1500 points amassed and 308 Grand Prix starts.

As a racing driver, he was extremely competitive and hated losing but also loved a challenge. In 1995, he raced to a second successive title with the unheralded Benetton team, becoming the youngest back-to-back world champion until Vettel arrived. Rather than stick with the Enstone unit, he decided to turn his back on them and accept a new challenge. That was to lead the Prancing Horse of Ferrari back to the top. Ferrari had been in the doldrums for far too long when he arrived for 1996. They hadn’t won a constructors’ title for 13 years, a driver’s title for 17 years and there were tough times such as driveshafts snapping in the pitlane and engines blowing up on the formation lap. Not once did he criticise the team though and he moulded them into a winning breed once again. He deserves great credit for accepting a new challenge and building a team around him.

The near-misses were tough to take but the relief and the pride was always there. When he finally achieved his goal of becoming world champion for Ferrari after victory in a gripping wheel-to-wheel duel with Mika Hakkinen at the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix, the majority were delighted. Formula One is not the same without a winning Ferrari outfit. He then proceeded to crush the opposition for the next four seasons. He won the title in 2002 by late July, 2004 by late August – something that with the number of races nowadays is unlikely even for Vettel to achieve. Even when Ferrari didn’t have the best car in 2003, Schumacher put in some meteoritic performances when required to snare the titles away from McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen and the Williams BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

Of course there were dark moments in his career where he had to win at all costs and I’m sure these are things the great man would regret. His move to take Damon Hill out of the 1994 title decider in Adelaide was a rash moment of desperation; the attempt to eliminate Jacques Villeneuve in Jerez at the 1997 finale was blatant and frankly disgusting – even his own tifosi support were incensed by that rash moment. There was also the worst parking offence of the 2006 season at La Rascasse during the dying moments of qualifying in Monte Carlo when he deliberately stopped his car to prevent other quicker cars stealing his pole position. The dark stains on his character are a real shame as it does taint a great champion.

However, I will remember him more for the epic drives he produced time and again. His drive from 16^th on the grid to win the 1995 Belgian Grand Prix for Benetton; his first win for Ferrari at a wet and soggy Barcelona in 1996 when he didn’t have the best car but won by a mile; the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix on a qualifying style strategy when McLaren had the measure of his chassis; the classic race with Hakkinen in Japan 2000 and the cameo in his comeback in Canada 2011 when he rolled back some of his prime days with clever overtakes in a car that was well below the standard he normally had underneath his disposal. 

As a man, Schumacher has great respect with the general public. He is a loving family man, who cares deeply about the achievements of his kids and his wife. He also spends a lot of time working for charities now his racing days are done and donating money to good causes. He gives a lot back to more unfortunate people who have suffered worst and that means he has my respect. While I admit that when he was winning all the time, it wasn’t great to watch – I appreciated the success and the ‘Dream Team’ at Ferrari more as history was being carved out, something we are witnessing again today with the Red Bull/Vettel combination.

The whole of the motorsport fraternity is thinking of Schumacher and his family at this horrible time. The tributes from former rivals, ex-team-mates and current competitors have been lovely to see. It shows that F1 and the sport in general is a family and we are all deeply affected when something terrible happens. Schumacher would know that from experience; shown when he broke down in floods of tears during a televised press conference after victory at Monza 2000 as he digested the news of a marshal being killed from injuries sustained in a multiple accident earlier in the race. I just hope Michael can pull through and will be able to see the general love, affection and respect that has been fully evident over the past week.

Ferrari fans show their support for their former hero outside hospital

Last Sunday, things didn’t look good whatsoever and I had almost given up hope with the way the reports were coming through of his injuries. Like the fighting desire he showed on the racing track time and again, the signs from Grenoble (Ferrari fans outside pictured) since 29 December have been slightly more positive. The situation is still critical and there is a long way back to recovery or even a stage where we can confidently say Schumacher is out of life danger. We will probably only know the severity more when the induced coma he is currently in is eased slowly by the hard-working and determined doctors over the next week. It would be a terrible irony that after 19 seasons driving around some of the hardest racing circuits at speeds upto 220mph relatively unscathed that this supremely fit human being succumbed to an impact that eyewitnesses have suggested was no more than 10mph.

My thoughts are with Michael Schumacher and the whole of his family. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed, say some prayers and hope that he comes back from the brink and makes a full recovery. This is his toughest battle yet but having seen him at his prime and peak, I know he can beat this, just like he did to all his rivals when he took the chequered flag in first place so often throughout his career.

Categories: Benetton, Charity, Controversy, Ferrari, France, Grenoble, Injury, Jordan, Michael Schumacher, Skiing