Ralf Schumacher expressed himself with emotional words about his Formula 1 past at the side of his older brother Michael.
“I was always incredibly proud of my brother and still am today, of all that he has achieved,” said Schumacher in the AvD Motorsport Magazine on SPORT1: “In our family there is no envy, on the contrary. We were really very, very lucky that we were allowed to live life, what we still get from it today, and what we have achieved.”
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He never had the feeling of standing in a shadow from which he wanted to step out.
In his early days in Formula 1, the questions about the special expectations placed on him were “more annoying than the current situation”.
Father doubts Ralf’s Formula 1 chances
He and his brother were “two guys from a hole, a kart track in Kerpen”: “One comes into Formula 1 and the other somehow has the wish.”
However, doubts about Ralf’s Formula 1 chances were great.
“My father kept saying to me: ‘Are you crazy? Two? You never make it. Please learn something decent, become a cook or someday take over the snack at our kart track, because you can make a good living from that – and listen to believe that something like this can happen twice, ‘”the now 45-year-old recalled.
Looking back, he was “very lucky” at the time, and benefited in particular from Michael’s contact with Willi Weber.
“So I have to say, I actually had no disadvantages. The only disadvantage I had: I had a lot of prejudices,” emphasized Schumacher. Relations with journalists in particular have not always been the best.
Six Formula 1 victories for Ralf Schumacher
“When I was young and impetuous, and sometimes also stupid, like every 16, 17, 18-year-old, then it was just as arrogant,” said the younger of the Schumacher brothers: “Things I’ve done , were arrogant – things that others did were funny. “
From this “at some point a cycle developed in which I wasn’t quite as positive about the media. Of course I would do that differently today, but it was like that.”
Ralf Schumacher drove for Jordan, Williams and Toyota in Formula 1 from 1997 to 2007, celebrating six race wins and finishing fourth in the World Championship twice.
His brother Michael, who is six years older than him, is still the record world champion with seven world championship titles for Benetton and Ferrari.
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