In a book entitled “Inside Mercedes F1”, the author, Matt Whyman, obtained rare confidences from Mick Schumacher about his father, Michael, the victim of a serious skiing accident in the Alps eleven years ago.
It’s a day he will never forget. On December 29, 2013 in Méribel, in the French Alps, Mick Schumacher, then 14 years old, was skiing with his father, Michael, when he suffered a very serious accident. Since then, the legendary F1 driver, record holder for world championship titles tied with Lewis Hamilton (7), has no longer been seen in public and his family keeps the greatest secret about his state of health. In his book, “Inside Mercedes F1”, the British author nevertheless obtained rare confidences from Mick Schumacher about his father.
“My motto was: ‘whatever my father does, I do too!'”
If the ex-Haas driver makes no revelations about his dad’s health, he did, however, speak with emotion about his relationship with him when he was younger. “My father was always in favor of me trying everything,” he remembers. “But what I always wanted was to race, because that’s what I enjoyed the most. (…) I was a very restless child! My motto was: everything my father does, I do too!” After trying karting at the age of three, scuba diving at six and skydiving at 10, Mick Schumacher, now 25, bet everything on motorsport.
“Mick, do you prefer to play football with your friends?”
It must be said that with the Ferrari legend, he benefited from good advice very early on: “Once, during a kart race, I braked very late in a corner and I gained a lot of time When I told him, he said, ‘You should have braked like that at every turn.'”
Michael Schumacher also sometimes reprimanded his son when he took things a little too lightly: “Each time he said to me: ‘Mick, do you prefer to play football with your friends? If it’s yes, we don’t need to do all that.’ And I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it right.’ That’s how I progressed.”
Then came this sad December 29, 2013 and this dramatic accident that Mick modestly recalls: “The year that followed I started in the Formula category and from there, I had to stand on my own two feet. “I have always been resilient. Until now I have overcome all painful obstacles.” And Mick concludes, still about his father: “He was very supportive and we had a lot of fun. But he could also be tough.”
