Schumacher: Part of Ferrari is always beside me
Michael Schumacher admits that, despite now competing with Mercedes Grand Prix, Ferrari will remain his spiritual home in Formula 1. After joining the Maranello team in 1996, the German helped raise the squad and celebrated five straight Drivers’ titles between 2000 and 2004, plus 72 of his 91 career victories over the 11 seasons.
“I will always have a part of Ferrari beside me; a part of my heart will always be red,” he is quoted as saying in the Ferrari Opus, in an extract viewed by The Independent.
“The Scuderia has a really special bond, it rightly speaks of itself as a family - a family that I have long felt a part of and that I still feel a part of. My time with Ferrari was wonderful. I have found friends and had experiences that I would not want to be without. Concepts that I had never contemplated before my time at Ferrari came to life for me there: myth, cult, history.
“All of that had said nothing to me; I had never concerned myself with it. Once I experienced at first hand the significance that Ferrari had for Italy and the Tifosi, only then did I grasp that these concepts were well justified. That they originate in a passion for engines and cars among those who build these cars as well as those who admire them.
“I am certainly not a lyrical man, but this passion I understand well enough. My deep passion is racing, and in that we are very much the same. After my initial misunderstanding I soon felt secure in this context.”
GPUpdate
