“The best racing driver ever”
Ex-Ferrari boss mourns: Schumacher’s “terrible day”
December 29, 2023, 3:17 p.m
Exactly ten years ago, Michael Schumacher had a serious accident in a skiing accident and long-time Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo is still mourning the loss of his former driver. In an interview he talks about the difficult hours and praises Schumacher’s racing skills.
Long-time Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo remembers with sadness the day of Michael Schumacher’s skiing accident ten years ago. “The less I talk about it, the better I feel, because it was a terrible day,” Montezemolo said in an interview with the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport. At first he didn’t have the right idea of what had happened: “After a few minutes the message became clearer and we were very worried.”
Schumacher suffered serious head injuries in a skiing accident on December 29, 2013. Since then, the record Formula 1 world champion has disappeared from the public eye. Montezemolo now praised Schumacher’s courage and his “great temperament. You shouldn’t forget that the cars of that time were more difficult than those of today, where there is so much electronics. For me, he was the best racing driver ever.”
Schumacher’s wife Corinna is, in Montezemolo’s eyes, “an extraordinary wife, I always respected her because she was one of those women who stood two meters behind her husband. And then I appreciate her courage and her commitment to protecting a man’s privacy, who is not doing well.”
Schumacher “extraordinary in the race”
Montezemolo said he was disappointed that Ferrari didn’t use Michael Schumacher’s son Mick “as a third driver, he would have been perfect. He’s a very serious guy, first-class like his sister,” said Montezemolo. Gina Schumacher is determined and is one of the best in equestrian sport.
At Ferrari, Montezemolo worked alongside Schumacher and Niki Lauda, who died in 2019. “They were the two drivers with whom I had the closest human relationship,” said Montezemolo: “They had two things in common: a great sense of teamwork, we all won or lost together. And an insane attention to detail.”
Compared to Lauda, Schumacher was “extraordinary in the race”: “He was able to drive 70 laps of a GP as if it were 70 qualifying laps. And he was the first to pay great attention to physical preparation. He was a Athlete who needed to feel the support and warmth of everyone around him in order to do his best.”