In his fourth Formula 1 season at Scuderia Ferrari, superstar Michael Schumacher finally wanted to celebrate his first world championship title with the Italians. The year 1999 headed for a highly exciting head-to-head race between Schumi and Mika Häkkinen in McLaren-Mercedes before a serious crash occurred on July 11, 1999.
At the Grand Prix of Great Britain on the traditional route of Silverstone, on which Formula 1 is guest this weekend, the later record world champion from Kerpen suffered the serious accident of his racing career.
The course was on a hot fight between Schumacher and the reigning world champion Häkkinen. The Finn had secured the pole position in front of the German with almost four tenths of a second, which was already waiting for three races for a win and had lost the World Cup lead at Häkkinen.
The serious departure occurred just a few seconds after the start. After two of the 22 reported pilots with Jacques Villeneuve and Alex Zanardi stayed at the start, the race management broke off the Grand Prix in the first of 60 rounds.
Lace quartet doesn’t get anything from red flags
However, this information did not arrive at Schumi, although the Ferrari box tried it via radio. Instead, the top drivers fried around the silver arrows of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard and the Ferraris by Eddy Irvine and Michael Schumacher with over 300 km/h to the Stowe curve.
Although red flags had long been swiveled at the start and finish, Schumi wanted to squeeze past the teammate after a failed start and pulled on the inside.
Suddenly the Formula 1 champion at the time lost control of his car. A ventilation screw on the brakes had loosened, so Schumacher was no longer able to steer into the stowe curve in question.
At still over 200 kilometers an hour, the red hit plowed through the gravel bed, directly to the stack of tires.
Years later, the Formula 1 legend reported in a “ZDF” show: “I was full of consciousness and think: Oh, that hurts now! You can’t do much anymore, you can no longer steer. You just support yourself and await the moment.”
Stroke at 107 km/h in the tire stack
And this moment came. With measured 107 km/h, Schumacher hit the tire stack. The car was completely destroyed in the front area. Schumacher had no chance and broke up shine and fibula.
However, the racing driver legend had a much more extreme experience, as he only revealed ten years after the horror crash of Silverstone: “I lie there and realize how I catch and calm down and calm my heart. And feel suddenly as my heartbeat becomes less and less. Lights go out completely. And then I think so it feels like you when you are on your way.”
Fortunately, things turned out differently. After Schumacher was finally recovered from the completely demolished car, the emergency doctors managed to stabilize Schumacher again. In addition to the broken bones, this had also contracted a heavy heel bruise.
The World Cup dream has burst prematurely in the fourth year. The star pilot is canceled a total of six other races before celebrating a great comeback in Malaysia in the penultimate season run in Malaysia. As an unselfish team player, he is supposed to help Eddy Irvine become a world championship title. The acclaimed double victory in Kuala Lumpur is not enough in the end. Mika Häkkinen succeeds at the season finale in Suzuka the final success of defending the title.
Ultimately, Michael Schumacher emerged even more and more focused from the worst accident in his motorsport career. In the following five years he made the largest success series in Formula 1 history to date and won the World Cup title five times in a row with the Scuderia Ferrari.