“If it wasn't for Michael, I would never have found out to what height I could go as a racing driver.”
These are the words of Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill, spoken to the hosts of the High Performance podcast about his rivalry with the great Michael Schumacher during the mid 1990s. They are also the embodiment of a feeling known to most who have shared the grid or the paddock with Schumacher.
Schumacher is well-known, perhaps even infamously, for his work ethic and perfectionism. Every bit of him was singularly focused on his goal of winning, of eking out the best from his car and team. But apart from just his own success, his meticulous and highly focused attitude had a massive effect on those around him, pushing them to reach greater heights than before.
“I had to extend myself beyond what I was capable of,” recalled Hill. “And I won.”
Schumacher amplified the unity in his team
Ross Brawn, who was a technical director at both Bennetton and Ferrari in the years that Schumacher won all seven of his titles, also spoke about the contagiousness of Schumacher’s mindset. "When you saw a driver as committed as Michael was, and so single minded about success, it dragged you along as well,” he said to CNN in 2016.
“You knew you couldn't let the side down, and everyone was the same. You knew when you had a driver so focused on achieving success, that motivated other people.”
“What I liked about him was the capability to work with the team,” said former Chairman of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo back in 2018 during the opening of the Michael Schumacher Private Collection at Motorworld Rhineland-Cologne. “When we were successful we were all together, when we were unsuccessful we were all together. This was very important.”
His dedication went above and beyond just the cockpit
Part of this came down to the fact that Schumacher’s perfectionism extended beyond his own performance inside the car. He wanted to understand and contribute to every aspect of the team that he could, from the design of the car to the strategy. And by going above and beyond the typical role of a driver, by ensuring that he was communicating with everyone around him, he helped build a much more tightly knit team no matter who he raced for.
"With his knowledge and maturity, sitting with a group of aerodynamicists or vehicle dynamists or tire people and explaining what was needed was invaluable,” recalled Brawn. “He was instrumental in creating the systems that contribute to the success that Mercedes has today."
But creating a culture where everyone around you feels pushed and motivated to do their best takes more than just showing up to an aerodynamics meeting or speaking to the engineers more often. Like with all things, Schumacher was extremely intentional and precise in the way that he communicated with those around him. His former performance engineer at Mercedes, Jock Clark, reflected on this in a 2020 conversation with Motorsport Magazine journalist Mark Hughes, saying that Schumacher knew exactly when “to be tough with people and when not to be.”
In particular, Clark recalled a time when the team was mulling over the choice between rollbars for an extended time. Schumacher stepped in, encouraging them to choose one so that they could move on to “looking to find an advantage that would play out longer term.”
Even Schumacher’s rivals improved because of him
The tact he had in the paddock as well as his skill on the track together combined into an unstoppable force that inspired both his own team as well as the drivers around him to strive for every bit of success possible.
His former rival, Mika Häkkinen, recalled how Schumacher influenced his own driving in an episode of High Performance. “I followed him many times,” said Hakkinen, “studying his lines, why he’s doing this, the way he’s using steering… how he was able to use the tires, tires and the suspension, loading the car.”
Every detail of Schumacher’s driving was exceptional, and forced the rest of the grid to re-examine their own driving, ultimately pushing the sport forward. And while Schumacher’s legacy is often thought of in terms of his number of wins or Championship titles, his impact has had a far wider reach that hearkens back to the very heart of Formula 1: the pursuit of excellence in motorsport. In motivating those both with and against him to strive for their own maximum potential, Schumacher has left a mark on F1 that is far more than just his wins. It’s an impact on the culture of the very thing we all hold dear.
Cover via Ferrari Media Centre
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