Autosport: The Schumacher Era

Four days after Michael Schumacher's last race came the news that Ross Brawn and Paolo Martinelli are also leaving Ferrari's Formula 1 operation. With Mario Almondo taking over as technical director, and Kimi Raikkonen coming in as Schumacher's replacement, things will indeed be very different in 2007.

How will Raikkonen do in a Ferrari? Pretty well, I'd say. He's as fast as any man and will have car reliability such as he has never known. Throw in Ferrari's unrivalled knowledge of Bridgestone tyres (which all must use next year), Alonso's move from Renault, and the Regie's lack of an established number one driver, and at this stage you'd have to favour Kimi for the world championship. Unless Massa beats him, of course.

From the way Felipe has been telling it, there will be no team orders in the post-Schumacher era. Presumably he knows whereof he speaks, in which case it will mark a significant departure from the custom of the past 10 years. I find it difficult to imagine the team revolving around Raikkonen as it did around Schumacher, but you never know. If Kimi puts in anything like the work Michael did, and achieves anything like his strike rate, they - and the tifosi - will doubtless take him to their bosom.

It will never be quite the same again on the podium, however. After a race, Raikkonen's face tells you nothing. Has he blown up? Been disqualified? Won? The Kimster saves his animation for his leisure hours.

Over time it has become increasingly the norm for a grand prix winner to look po-faced on the podium, and thus it was always a pleasure - even after a dull afternoon of domination - to see Michael's obvious joy. Ninety-one times he stood on the top step and invariably he looked like a man there for the first time.

Although he had never the presence of Ayrton Senna, still, by sheer weight of achievement, Schumacher dominated the paddock, always chased by photographers as he strode from pit to motorhome. From very early in his career Michael learned how to be a modern F1 driver. Indeed he was ahead of his time.

Fifteen years ago, if one wished to interview Senna or Prost or whomever, one simply asked the driver. At Montreal in 1992, I made that request of Schumacher. "Speak to my manager," was the response. Firm, if not curt.

In point of fact, speaking to his manager just then would have been difficult, for Willi Weber was involved in fiscal negotiations with a local artist, who wished Michael to sign prints of a rather good painting he had done. We were speaking strictly cash here, you understand, and when the poor sod had emptied every pocket there remained a shortfall to the value of nine signatures. Too bad, Weber shrugged. My first thought was how tacky, my second how rich Willi was going to make Michael.

For a while this manifested itself quite... overtly, let's say. Two years on Schumacher was heading for his first championship, and like many a young grand prix driver, relishing his new-found wealth. As we queued for cabs at the airport in Montreal, a white 'stretch' limo glided into view. There were flashes of crocodile boot and of gold as Michael and Willi, fresh from New York, climbed aboard. It wasn't particularly edifying and prompted another F1 star, waiting in line with the rest of us, to make a remark of startling political incorrectness.

In time, of course, Michael gained polish and perhaps his early lapses in style owed something to his sportscar apprenticeship with Mercedes, which would send out rather camp publicity shots of its leather-clad young drivers.

Before he so much as set foot in an F1 car, it was becoming clear that Schumacher was potentially one of those special talents. Before leaving for Spa in 1991 (where he made his debut in a Jordan), I got a call from my colleague Quentin Spurring, who had witnessed all Schuey's sportscar drives: "Telling you now," he said, "that boy will be world champion..."

Michael's stay at Jordan was on the brief side - one race - because the contract leaked at the seams. By qualifying seventh for his first grand prix he indeed served notice of intent and was suddenly in demand. At Monza, the next race, the battle for his services between Jordan and Benetton - umpired by B.C. Ecclestone - went on into the early hours of Friday morning.

Michael Schumacher (Jordan 191 Ford) qualifying for the 1991 Belgian GP © LAT

A few years later, by which time Schumacher had become world champion, I asked Bernie about that night of negotiation. He wasted little time on fripperies: "These people who run teams, they start to believe they're geniuses - that without them, nothing would ever happen.

"They were lucky I stayed up all night in Monza and persuaded Schumacher to drive for them. First, I had to persuade Briatore and Walkinshaw to take him - Tom wanted Brundle, or somebody, and Flavio didn't know, and didn't want an argument, because... what's his name, Moreno, was there, and they had a contract with him. Schumacher didn't want a fight, and his manager was wondering if he should go somewhere else. In the end I told Schumacher to shut up and go to bed - I said, 'When you wake up in the morning, you'll be a Benetton driver'. And that's exactly what happened...

"As a matter of fact," Bernie went on, "at about the same time as that happened, I convinced Senna to drive for Ferrari. It was at the Villa d'Este again. Everything was all right - they just had to get on and do it. But the people running Ferrari at that time weren't very bright and they let him escape. He would have signed, I'm telling you, and they let him off the hook. If they hadn't, the fortunes of Ferrari would have improved a lot sooner."

Indeed so. As it was, though, that was not to happen until some years later - when Schumacher arrived.

In his first race for Benetton, Michael finished fifth - ahead of resident team leader Nelson Piquet, whom he had also out-qualified. That told you something, and so also did final qualifying at Suzuka, in which he had a very big accident.

"I sat him down," said Professor Sid Watkins, "and said, 'You're a good-looking boy, Michael, but if you carry on like this, you're going to be a good-looking corpse'. He was obviously tremendously talented, but in those early days I felt he was a bit over the edge some of the time.

"He didn't say anything, just took it in, and nodded. Then he got in the spare car - and went faster than he had before! That impressed me, I must say. I thought, 'This boy's world champion material..."

Exactly a year after his F1 debut, Michael won the Belgian Grand Prix, but even before that Ayrton Senna had identified him as a future threat. On the opening lap at Magny-Cours Schumacher was presumptuous to put a move on him, into the Adelaide hairpin. The Benetton knocked the McLaren into instant retirement and Senna wasn't pleased.

"A few laps later," Jo Ramirez remembered, "the race was stopped because of rain, and as the drivers waited for the restart, Ayrton - now in civvies - went to speak to Michael on the grid. He read him the riot act. I could see them in the distance, could see Michael nodding his head, saying, 'Yes sir, no sir...' Ayrton came back all satisfied with himself, saying, 'Great! Got him just before he got in the car again!'"

Schumacher (Benetton B192 Ford) tangles with Ayrton Senna (McLaren MP4/7A Honda) at the start of the 1992 French GP © LAT

The following year, at Imola, Senna was killed while trying to hold off Schumacher's faster Benetton. With Ayrton gone, and Alain Prost retired, Michael was now in effect unopposed, in terms of talent, and won the championship in both 1994 and '95. Rumours persisted, though, of a move to Ferrari.

At the Hungaroring a few of us had an informal dinner with Michael, and although he was very cute in not letting anything slip, at one point he allowed that, "It wouldn't upset me too much to have a competitive car that sometimes didn't finish. What I couldn't tolerate would be running fourth or fifth. All I want to do is win races."

After Schumacher had left, we sat around, had another coffee, and concluded that, yes, he was going to Ferrari. In announcing the deal at Monza, Fiat President Gianni Agnelli put it this way: "If we don't win with Michael, it will be our fault". Something of a departure, that, from the time-honoured Ferrari line that cars win races, and drivers lose them.

Agnelli, though, was right enough: there were no doubts about the quality of the new driver. And none, either, about the abilities of Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn, also recruited from Benetton. Throw in the sly organisational genius of Jean Todt, and the picture seemed complete.

Once he began testing for Ferrari, though, Schumacher quickly appreciated the scale of the task before him. Although he won three races in 1996, it would not be until 2000 - his fifth season with the team - that he won a third championship to go with those gained at Benetton. Mind you, that done, he didn't lose another until 2005, and there were times - particularly in '02 and '04 - when you began to doubt he would ever lose another race.

How will we remember him? As a man, he is polite, formal in the Germanic manner, not without a sense of humour, generous (he gives an immense amount of money to charities, and plenty who could do not), fundamentally kind.

"People used to look up to Senna," said Bernie Ecclestone. "A first-class guy, and good at his job. And, as good as Michael is, he's never had that sort of following, has he? It's actually not fair, that, because he's a very warm, caring, thoughtful, guy - but he doesn't come across like that, so people think he's arrogant, and so on.

"My only criticism of Michael is that he would never have another superstar as his teammate. For several years, because the cars were so good, the only person who could beat him was someone else in a Ferrari, and when that person wasn't even allowed to beat him - and, worse than that, was riding shotgun in case somebody could get near him - people didn't have the respect for Michael that perhaps they should have done. I doubt that anyone would have beaten him in equal cars, but we'll never know, will we? And I think that's a shame."

Sid Watkins and Michael Schumacher © LAT

It's a fact that while folk such as Bernie, Sid Watkins and so on unfailingly speak warmly of Schumacher, you don't get the same reaction from many of his fellow drivers. Those who were his teammates, for example, speak of him with a degree of awe, but there isn't a lot of affection in evidence. Which rather serves to confirm what we already knew, that Michael in a racing car was never quite the 'warm, caring' individual he was out of it.

His various stunts on the track have been too well-documented to bear repetition here, and I'll admit I thought every one of them contemptible and well worthy of the censure they (occasionally) received. What puzzles me, though, is that Senna - sometimes ruthless beyond imagining - never came in for the vilification Schumacher has faced.

Maybe it's because Ayrton tended to save his worst excesses for Prost, his nemesis, whereas Michael has been more democratic, ready to edge off the road anyone who presumed to overtake him. Ask Rubens. Ask Fernando. For that matter, ask Ralf...

In recent days I have grown weary of hearing that Michael was so great, so successful, that his 'professional fouls' (nice comfy phrase) were of rather little account. I hope he enjoys his retirement, his family, his animals, his schnapps and occasional cigar. But in the end, I can't put him with such as Fangio and Moss and Clark and Stewart, all of whom fought hard, all of whom fought fair.