Our life is sometimes conditioned by external factors or factors that have little to do with us directly. I remember December 23, 2009 very well, a very particular date, between the wait for the arrival of the Christmas holidays and the news that the media was starting to spread. The news started to circulate very quickly, I was at school and the internet was still a vague concept. However, the news arrived quickly and it could only break down the doors of my high school. The announcement was global in scope, and when I got home I immediately turned on the TV and everything became reality: Michael Schumacher was racing in Formula 1 again. Well, now take me at 15 like many others my age and think that those Christmas holidays were experienced amidst the splendor of the news but with a pinch of disappointment.
Schumacher was ready to return to Formula 1
Brazil 2006 was a race that is difficult to forget, Schumacher that day was the protagonist of a spectacular comeback, finishing on the edge of the podium. The title went to Fernando Alonso, but it doesn't matter, the Kaiser's retirement was as if written by the gods. His triumphs after Monza 2006 when his retirement was announced became a cavalcade of memories all the way to Interlagos. Memories that I also felt were mine, since 2000 but better yet since 2001 my passion for Formula 1 became increasingly greater. Michael therefore represented a lot for me, then he won with Ferrari and this made the German a legend to be honored in the eyes of Italians.
So after that Interlagos race I believed that the book of memories had closed, it would have no more pages to write, it's as if a great writer, after having published a wonderful story, came out with another one years later. The suspicion that arises is that it is not up to the previous one. So I remember how that December 23rd had a slightly strange taste. The fear was that Schumacher could be seen with different eyes in his return to Formula 1. Furthermore, he would no longer be dressed in red. For us Ferrari kids it was unacceptable.
Mercedes convinces Michael to return
Schumacher decided to return to Mercedes also thanks to the courtship of Ross Brawn. The technical director who together with the German had set the world on fire when they were at Ferrari. The call was important, because a German brand was returning to the limelight in Formula 1 and with an entirely Teutonic team. Schumacher also liked Nico Rosberg as a teammate and therefore agreed to return to the top championship. The beginning was traumatic for me, I almost saw it as a betrayal and I don't deny that it hurt me and I didn't know if I would support him or how I would behave when the season started.
On March 14th the 2010 Formula 1 season came to life and when I saw Michael on the starting grid everything disappeared. Suddenly, seeing him there in the Mercedes colors transformed from disbelief into emotion. Seeing him race again was always spectacular, even if the results were not the same. A part of me started looking at him again with eyes full of happiness and I don't deny that I was rooting for him again like when he was the Lord in Red. In the end he was still Michael Schumacher.
Schumacher, however, did not leave a clear mark
Those three years with Mercedes were not exciting, the only joy came in the 2012 European GP when he finished on the podium. Then there would be that magic in the qualifying sessions in Monte Carlo where he won the Pole Position with a perfect, clean and almost hypnotic lap between the walls of the Principality. It's a shame that according to statistics, that Pole never happened, because the German had to serve a disqualification for having thrown out Romain Grosjean in the previous race. The disqualification was right, but why also take away the satisfaction of having achieved Pole? It was enough to relegate him without affecting the statistics. This, however, is another story, because the real one actually refers to that 23 December 2009. A day that was supposed to mark the start of the Christmas holidays and which instead is now remembered above all for the greatest comeback in the history of Formula 1 .
PHOTO: Formula 1
