Emotional interview with Ralf Schumacher: Why he didn’t play much with Michael as a child and why he sometimes gets annoyed with Jean Todt today
On the tenth anniversary of his brother Michael’s serious skiing accident, Ralf Schumacher wishes his family some peace and quiet: “It would be nice,” he says, “if people didn’t ask so often”, especially around Christmas, because it is “a very personal time”. And: “We in the family have agreed more or less not to comment on it.”
A principle that friends outside the Schumacher family don’t always take quite so seriously. “You hear things all the time,” says the current TV reporter in an interview with his employer Sky, explicitly mentioning “above all Jean Todt”, the former Ferrari team boss and FIA president.
“It was a serious break for the whole family at the time,” explains Schumacher, who expressly does not comment on his brother’s state of health even ten years later. He appeals to the public and the media: “After such a long time, it would be time to understand that you need privacy.”
Even though the skiing accident and its consequences were primarily a drastic experience for the family, Schumacher understands that many fans are concerned about his brother’s fate and would like to know more: “It’s nice how many people are thinking about Michael.” But: “Some still go a little too far and too close to the family.”
Michael’s wife Corinna Schumacher, “who really is an incredibly strong woman”, as Schumacher acknowledges, deserves credit for putting up with this and keeping the family together under the most difficult of circumstances. And he emphasizes: “What she does, and the whole family, is really great.”
In the interview with Sky, the 48-year-old also provides rare insights into his childhood in Kerpen. Michael was twelve years old and he was six, so they “only played together to a limited extent”. Due to the age difference, their interests were simply different, which only changed when Ralf also started karting and Michael became something like his “mentor”.
“He was really more like the big brother who had to look after me sometimes, poor guy! It probably wasn’t always fun for him either, and the little one probably annoyed him here and there. I can’t remember it all that well, but that’s probably the way it is – it’s a little brother’s job,” laughs Schumacher.
From the gravel pit in Kerpen to Formula 1 together: “What we were able to experience was unbelievably great,” says Schumacher. While he himself won six Grands Prix, Michael won 91, and seven world championship titles to boot. For him, it was all “in a completely different dimension”.
Schumacher admits that his recent interview for an ARD documentary project brought back “wonderful memories” for him. And he adds: “It’s a different time now, and you enjoy it differently.”
For the younger of the two Schumacher brothers, one thing is also clear: “Without my brother, I would never have ended up in Formula 1. Where would I have come from? You have to have certain connections. It all costs a lot of money.” Michael and Willi Weber took care of that for him. “And I am eternally grateful to them for that. “