Former Ferrari Formula 1 boss and FIA president Jean Todt has made the claim that Michael Schumacher lost two World Championships due to two errors which he has admitted were deliberate.
The German superstar is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport, and stands alongside Lewis Hamilton for jointly holding the record for most titles won, with seven.
After winning two Drivers’ Championships with Benetton in 1994 and ’95, Schumacher made the shocking switch to Ferrari – then perennial underachievers – for the following season.
With Todt at the helm, Schumacher used his influence to bring a number of key personnel with him to Ferrari, and in 2000, completed the turnaround with his first title in red, the first for the Scuderia in 21 years.
He followed this up with another four in succession, ultimately sealing his place in the conversation as one of F1’s all-time greats.
But Schumacher was also known for a number of high-profile controversies, which many believed were several blots on his copybook.
And Todt has now claimed that two of them, that he originally defended, were indeed deliberate acts to sabotage another competitor.
In the final round of the 1997 season at Jerez, Schumacher was holding off the advances of title rival Jacques Villeneuve, but when the Canadian tried to overtake him, he turned inwards, appearing to try and take Villeneuve out.
Schumacher’s manoeuvre, in whatever the motive, backfired, and the Ferrari became beached in the gravel. Villeneuve went on to finish third, claiming the title.
For his misdemeanour, Schumacher was disqualified from the whole 1997 championship.
“He crashed [into] him purposely, but he did it badly,” Todt told the High Performance podcast. “In fact, Michael, [an] amazing guy, every time he lost control, he paid [for] it very expensively.
“So it cost him the championship.”
Michael Schumacher Jerez and Monaco incidents put down to ‘just an emotion’
Another high-profile incident came at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, during qualifying.
With Schumacher sitting in provisional pole position, title rival Fernando Alonso was following behind on a lap that looked set to snatch pole off of him.
On approaching the Rascasse corner on one final lap, Schumacher appeared to park nose-first towards the barrier, in what he claimed was a genuine mistake from which he could not back the Ferrari out of.
With yellow flags triggered, Alonso was forced to abort the lap, and was furious. Schumacher ultimately paid by being forced to start the race from the back of the grid.
And despite a superb drive to finish fifth, Alonso won the race.
“As, incidentally, in 2006, Monte-Carlo qualifying with Alonso where he purposely spun. He had to [start from] the back of the grid, it cost him the championship as well,” Todt continued.
“So the two mistakes he did cost him the championship.”
Todt still defended Schumacher however, making the point that it is hard for anyone who is not a racer to understand a driver’s mentality in the midst of battle.
“It was just an emotion,” he said. “That’s why you must be, when you judge somebody in action, you must be very indulgent. It’s easy around the table, to say ‘you should do that’, ‘you should that’.
“But when you are in the action, you must understand that your brain is reacting differently.
“When he saw that he was going to lose the championship, because he had to be in front of Villeneuve, he tried to avoid that and he tried wrongly to do it. And he needed support. It was a bad move, it wasn’t necessary.”
Whilst it has largely been accepted by many that Schumacher indeed committed most of these acts with intent, it would be worth noting that many of the greatest drivers in the sport’s history, such as Ayrton Senna, committed similar incidents.
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