For a man whose life had run on a race calendar since childhood, the first morning without one was the hardest part.
That is the picture Ralf Schumacher has painted of his older brother Michael Schumacher’s first retirement, speaking to Formula1.com in an interview published on 1 October, 20 years to the day since Michael’s 91st and final F1 win at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
The retirement, Ralf said, was never a clean break.
“On the one hand, he was happy to leave, but on the other hand… You can’t imagine when your life is more or less programmed, you know there’s a season from February to whatever time, and your travel schedule, everything, is done. Then, all of a sudden, you wake up in the morning and ask, ‘What am I going to do now? I have all this free time.’”
‘I’ll stop at the end of the year’
Michael took the decision together with his wife Corinna Schumacher, Ralf said, and it was not reached quickly.
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“I think it took him a long time to take the decision, but he took it with his wife, and I remember he called me and said, ‘I’ll stop at the end of the year’.”
The pull in two directions was there well before any public announcement.
“On the one hand, he wanted to continue to drive in F1, and on the other hand, it was so demanding for him. He had his family, and he wanted to spend more time with the kids.”
By the closing weeks of 2006, Ralf said, that trade-off had curdled into regret.
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“When it came towards the end of the year, I think he realized what his decision was. He stopped, but he wasn’t really happy with stopping, so that’s why he came back in 2010.”
Three years out, then Mercedes
Michael spent three seasons away before signing for the new Mercedes works team in 2010, racing alongside Nico Rosberg. He retired for a second time at the end of 2012; his seat went to Lewis Hamilton.
The same affection ran through Ralf’s words at Monza last month, when he spoke to Sky Sports F1 during the Italian Grand Prix weekend about his brother’s Ferrari years.
“I was always asked, ‘Who was your personal idol?’ And I never had one except my brother. And it’s strange to say that because we are only six and a half years apart, but all I ever knew about racing, he taught me.”
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Michael has not been seen in public since a skiing accident at Méribel in the French Alps on 29 December 2013 left him with a severe brain injury. The family has kept details of his condition private.
