To The Great And Terrible Michael Schumacher

By Elena
November 30 2006

A tribute to Michael Schumacher and a look back on the career that made him the legend he is today. From the fantastic races to the rivalries to the scandals and the man behind it all, Schumacher stole our hearts and it will hurt the Tifosi greatly, now that he is gone.

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To The Great And Terrible Michael Schumacher
My God, Michael! You can’t imagine how difficult it is to write about you! Firstly, your achievements are hardly countable so any attempts to review them all in a short article make no sense. And secondly, it will tell nothing about your outstanding personality. You made everyone in the F1 world, and beyond its limits, to talk about you for 15 years. It’s sometimes even funny! People may not have the slightest idea of F1 racing (there are some, but not really many), but they all know your name. In the Russian language the word "Schumacher" has switched from being a proper noun to common usage. "He thinks he is a Schumacher!" – that’s what people say on the occasion they see a driver who seems to be too fast and, at times, not careful about others. Note! It never crosses someone’s mind to compare him with Alonso. Perhaps it will never do… And now you’re leaving the sport. "It was the most difficult decision in my life. Sorry it took longer than you wanted… At the end of this season I decided to retire." There were certain events, connected with you, that still evoke my vivid memories. "This super-driver knows Spa like the back of his hand" – so Willi Weber urged Eddie Jordan to give you a chance on the eve of your first ever race in F1. They say you had made a couple of laps of the track. Having ridden a bicycle! We all remember how the story ended. But I suppose, later, Jordan was about to tear his hair out when Briatore decided to make a grab for you. In Spa 1998 you were leading with a gap of nearly 40 seconds (!) when all of a sudden you met the rear wing of Coulthard’s McLaren which could barely cope with the flood on the Belgian track. "Did you want to finish me off?" – you shouted to the Scot. Monaco 1999. It’s impossible! That was all I could say having watched as both Ferraris passed both McLarens at the start. How did you manage to make it in the narrowest streets in the world where a race turns into an endless train-game at times? With short breaks for crashes… Silverstone 1999. July 11. The day when your hopes of the title were crossed out by the horror crash at Stowe, having left clouds of dust and traces of burnt rubber on the track. The leg fracture forced you to miss seven races. But later in Sepang, when your long-awaited comeback happened, Mika Hakkinen didn’t look that happy. And how could he? You grabbed a vital victory for Irvine, torturing the Finn. And it didn’t seem to be quite the same as the tifosi had promised him in Monza: "Don’t cry, Mika! Schumi is coming soon". That was a captivating, absorbing season, wasn’t it? With your help, for sure. Seven years later. In Monza again. "Kimi, the red doesn’t suit you" – wrote Scuderia fans, thus having expressed what everybody in F1 expected for the last few months. How could they part with you, Michael? You have become a man who restored a dream and made them feel a forgotten taste of wins. Countless wins. You united the team having made them a big family. You brought them to the peak and stayed for so long that people started whingeing about getting bored to death with F1. But was it really your fault that your rivals were blowing their chances, keeping on stumbling over their own folly? Red waves of Hockenheim were ruffling the stands. They were mostly red in all the parts of world where the Big Circus arrived. "The day has to come though, and I feel this is the moment." I know, Michael, but saying goodbye to you is not easy… "It has been an exceptional time. I’ve loved every single moment, the good and the bad." I’ve loved it too. It doesn’t matter that you lost the championship actually. You left the sport like a great champion should do – in a blaze of fight. That was you who turned the season into an unreal, fantastical occasion. That was you who made Alonso take risk, to squeeze everything out of his car, his tactics. You made him feel nervous, get irritated, show his true potential. You had a thousand opponents: Senna, Mansell, Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Montoya, Alonso… But you always lived on the edge in the fight, hanging in the balance of perfect driving and risk of losing. Schumi, thank you for all your victories and defeats, for scandals at times which heated up a season and showed the value of true racing, for football in Monaco and your pranks with water. Thank you for being with us for 15 years. And championships, as you must know, are won not in the overall standing but in the hearts of fans. Whatever you decide to do in the future, I believe, you are going to succeed in it because you are the Great Champion, Michael Schumacher. Good luck in your new life! P.S. Michael, I don’t know if you ever have a chance to play football with Albert again… But could you please not cause him to fall anymore – he’s not a prince anymore but the King!
	November 30, 2006

To The Great
And Terrible
Michael Schumacher

My God, Michael! You can’t imagine how difficult it is to write about you! Firstly, your achievements are hardly countable so any attempts to review them all in a short article make no sense. And secondly, it will tell nothing about your outstanding personality. You made everyone in the F1 world, and beyond its limits, to talk about you for 15 years. It’s sometimes even funny! People may not have the slightest idea of F1 racing (there are some, but not really many), but they all know your name. In the Russian language the word "Schumacher" has switched from being a proper noun to common usage. "He thinks he is a Schumacher!" – that’s what people say on the occasion they see a driver who seems to be too fast and, at times, not careful about others. Note! It never crosses someone’s mind to compare him with Alonso. Perhaps it will never do…

And now you’re leaving the sport. "It was the most difficult decision in my life. Sorry it took longer than you wanted… At the end of this season I decided to retire."

There were certain events, connected with you, that still evoke my vivid memories. "This super-driver knows Spa like the back of his hand" – so Willi Weber urged Eddie Jordan to give you a chance on the eve of your first ever race in F1. They say you had made a couple of laps of the track. Having ridden a bicycle! We all remember how the story ended. But I suppose, later, Jordan was about to tear his hair out when Briatore decided to make a grab for you.

In Spa 1998 you were leading with a gap of nearly 40 seconds (!) when all of a sudden you met the rear wing of Coulthard’s McLaren which could barely cope with the flood on the Belgian track. "Did you want to finish me off?" – you shouted to the Scot. Monaco 1999. It’s impossible! That was all I could say having watched as both Ferraris passed both McLarens at the start. How did you manage to make it in the narrowest streets in the world where a race turns into an endless train-game at times? With short breaks for crashes…

Silverstone 1999. July 11. The day when your hopes of the title were crossed out by the horror crash at Stowe, having left clouds of dust and traces of burnt rubber on the track. The leg fracture forced you to miss seven races. But later in Sepang, when your long-awaited comeback happened, Mika Hakkinen didn’t look that happy. And how could he? You grabbed a vital victory for Irvine, torturing the Finn. And it didn’t seem to be quite the same as the tifosi had promised him in Monza: "Don’t cry, Mika! Schumi is coming soon". That was a captivating, absorbing season, wasn’t it? With your help, for sure. Seven years later. In Monza again. "Kimi, the red doesn’t suit you" – wrote Scuderia fans, thus having expressed what everybody in F1 expected for the last few months. How could they part with you, Michael? You have become a man who restored a dream and made them feel a forgotten taste of wins. Countless wins. You united the team having made them a big family. You brought them to the peak and stayed for so long that people started whingeing about getting bored to death with F1. But was it really your fault that your rivals were blowing their chances, keeping on stumbling over their own folly? Red waves of Hockenheim were ruffling the stands. They were mostly red in all the parts of world where the Big Circus arrived.

"The day has to come though, and I feel this is the moment." I know, Michael, but saying goodbye to you is not easy…

"It has been an exceptional time. I’ve loved every single moment, the good and the bad." I’ve loved it too. It doesn’t matter that you lost the championship actually. You left the sport like a great champion should do – in a blaze of fight. That was you who turned the season into an unreal, fantastical occasion. That was you who made Alonso take risk, to squeeze everything out of his car, his tactics. You made him feel nervous, get irritated, show his true potential.

You had a thousand opponents: Senna, Mansell, Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Montoya, Alonso… But you always lived on the edge in the fight, hanging in the balance of perfect driving and risk of losing.

Schumi, thank you for all your victories and defeats, for scandals at times which heated up a season and showed the value of true racing, for football in Monaco and your pranks with water. Thank you for being with us for 15 years.

And championships, as you must know, are won not in the overall standing but in the hearts of fans.

Whatever you decide to do in the future, I believe, you are going to succeed in it because you are the Great Champion, Michael Schumacher. Good luck in your new life!

P.S. Michael, I don’t know if you ever have a chance to play football with Albert again… But could you please not cause him to fall anymore – he’s not a prince anymore but the King!

November 30, 2006