Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso send messages to F1 icon Unfollows As Rift Thickens…
Michael Schumacher won seven F1 world championship titles but has not been seen in a public since suffering life changing head injuries in a skiing accident a decade ago.
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have lavished praise on former F1 rival Michael Schumacher ahead of a five-part series on the career of the Ferrari legend.
Schumacher won seven world titles during a formidable career, five of which came with the Scuderia. It’s a marker since matched by Hamilton, who replaced the German driver at Mercedes back in 2012.
And now 10 years on from the harrowing skiing accident in Grenoble that saw him suffer life changing injuries, Being Michael Schumacher will be released in Germany on December 14.
Since returning to his home on Switzerland, the family of the 54-year-old have opted to keep details of his condition private.
As part of the documentary series, both Hamilton and Alonso have made contributions, with the British driver saying: “A full out great racer. He won the race when Ayrton died. (He was) winning everything!”
Like Schumacher, Alonso also represented Ferrari during his own iconic career, that has seen him win two world titles with Renault.
The 42-year-old remains in the sport with Alpine, and was fourth in the 2023 drivers’ standings.
“I lost more against him than I won” said the Spaniard. “He is an incredible driver, he was an inspiration for all the drivers of my generation when we were in karting and in the junior formulas to see Michael dominating the sport.
He did change the way of approaching racing, physical preparation, determination, work ethic into the weekend with the engineers. A lot of things in the sport changed because of Michael – for the better.”
Schumacher first competed in F1 with Jordan in 1991. He retired at the end of the 2006 campaign, but then returned in 2010 and had three extra seasons with the Silver Arrows.
Overall, he took to the grid for 306 Grand Prix races. His total of 91 F1 victories is only bettered by Hamilton, who has racked up 103 wins since his debut season in 2007.