Now available on Netflix is ”Schumacher”, a documentary that traces the life of the seven-time F1 world champion. With archive material and interviews with relatives, he does not make a great contribution on his state of health.
“Don’t make me a star. Don’t push me too high. I do not want that”. In short, the German Michael Schumacher was shaping up in the early 90s as the great Formula 1 driver that he finally was. The most champion in history. Seven world titles. He knew that his rising image generated applause, idolatry and fame. Also business. But he intended low profile. “Private is private,” he read, as his wife, Corinna Betsch, recalls in Schumacher, the hour-and-a-half documentary.
Privacy, so fundamental for Schumi, is also for his family, sometimes attacked for keeping under lock and key news of the pilot who hit his head on December 29, 2013 while skiing in the French Alps. To this day there is only speculation. The president of the FIA, Jean Todt, slipped optimistic data. Others say he is still in a coma. In the documentary he does not add anything about it. Hardly any opinions of his wife and children in the final ten minutes. The above is a tour of his sports career with some (few) facts about his life off the slopes. Who wants to know how the former pilot is today, will not find the answer in this work.
Schumacher begins with an image of the racer diving and then sped through a dark tunnel at F1 speed. It could be the perfect summary of the story. “You have to be one with the car – it is heard in off – because there is always a limit and you must be careful, as with everything you like in life.”
We are in 1991, in Belgium. The German makes his debut for the Jordan team and leaves a very good impression. Until then, it is said, his family fought from an uncomfortable financial position. To build the go-karts in which he competed as a boy, they resorted to used tires and spare parts. They did not dream of reaching the highest category. His luck changes when German drivers manager Willi Weber bursts in. In a meeting with his father, an agreement is sealed and he offers money and a car.
“Having to win with the cheapest was an extra feeling,” recalls the pilot. And his father, Ralph, also remembers: “Before his debut in Formula 1 we ate pizza and it was the last time that Michael could eat quietly in a public place.”
These are times of the reign of Ayrton Senna. “Hey, you screwed up and I came to talk to you,” Senna says angrily, after a clash between the two of them that meant abandonment. Senna noticed that this guy was someone. When you are a lion, all lions feel when a young lion arrives and they want to preserve their territory ”, exemplifies Flavio Briatore. Sparks will come out other times. But in 1994, in Imola, there will be a break with no return. Senna marches at full speed, followed by Schumacher, who will be an unexpected witness to the accident that cost the Brazilian his life. It is one of the most emotional moments at work. The German -who was the winner- realizes the lack of information about the colleague’s state of health and the pain when learning the outcome.
Without Senna, the Schumacher era begins. His championships and the bet that Ferrari will make to incorporate him as the man who will restore prestige to a team that has not won a championship since 1979. Schumacher is obsessed with the car. To the point that he works until very late with three mechanics from the team. Years go by and the results do not come. At Ferrari they doubt about his quality as a driver and Schumacher doubts about the quality of the cars.
“A paranoid of perfection”, they define it. “He does not apologize. He feels that he is never wrong ”, they add. Sure on the outside, his wife says he doubted himself and that was precisely what he wanted to hide. “That no one found out that he was having a bad time.” Self-demanding. Resultist. His storied manager and press officer Sabine Kehm helps put together the Schumacher puzzle.
In 1997 the titles were still elusive and he goes to Norway for six weeks to clear. Snow, family and thirty friends. No motorsports, Corinna recalls. The superiority of the McLaren had him to mistreat. When he returns to the slopes, he will not hide his bad mood. He will fight with Mika Hakkinen. He will collide with David Coulthard and go looking for him to fight.
In the year 2000, and here we are in the happiest part of the production, Schumacher is champion with Ferrari. At last the shadow of Hakkinen and the tension of not winning a title are lifted. Until 2004 all the championships will be his. Seven times in total, if you add those of 1994 and 1995 with Benetton. Unmotivated, he will retire in 2006 and will compete again in 2010, for Mercedes Benz, a team that he will leave in 2012, when he had to give up the place to the rising Lewis Hamilton.
Then the documentary goes to the fateful day of 2013. Here comes the private nuanced by family archive images. His children, excited, join with opinions about the absent father who is not there but is. “Private is private,” Corinna repeats. “So for me it is important that he continues to have his privacy,” he justifies.
“I never blamed God. It was bad luck and you can’t have more bad luck than that ”, analyzes the woman who protects the king of F1 and who endures as best she can the criticism of those who reproach her for her logical silence.
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