F1 News
"The staff literally tore themselves apart to help Schumacher"
- GPblog.com
It is exactly seven years ago today that Michael Schumacher had his almost fatal skiing accident and a lot of thought is being given to the German driver. The same is true of two people who worked closely with him; Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds.
Ross Brawn was involved in 88 of his 91 Formula 1 victories. The current sporting director of Formula 1 worked with Schumacher at Benetton (technical director), Ferrari (team boss) and Mercedes (team boss). Pat Symonds was Schumacher's racing engineer at Benetton.
Hunger for success
Although Lewis Hamilton has now broken almost all of Schumacher's records, Brawn is clear. "For me, Michael is the best of them all," he says to Speedweek.com. “Not only because of his driving skills. But mainly because he played such a pivotal role in shaping the teams at Benetton and Ferrari."
Brawn especially praises Schumacher's dedication. "You get carried away by his enthusiasm. You know you don't want to let him down, and so does everyone in the team. His hunger for success motivated people. He taught me an important lesson in this respect and showed me how to create the right atmosphere in a team.”
Thought transfer
Symonds was very close at the time with Schumacher. "We reached a level of understanding almost without words, it was bordering on thought transfer." Schumacher was very good with people. “He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met in the sport. He really cared about his staff, so they literally tore themselves apart to help them," Symonds says.
According to Symonds, Schumacher also had an enormous eye for detail. "We really took care of the smallest details to gain a little more time. He was a dream to work with in terms of his logic, his dedication, his work ethic, his intelligence and his ability to drive such a car insanely fast. It was always amazing."