Record world champion Michael Schumacher shone not only on but also off the Formula 1 track. At the then legendary Schumi parties in the paddock, things were going really well, as his brother Ralf has now revealed.
Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has given an insight into the celebrations that his brother Michael held after the respective world championships in the mid-90s to mid-2000s. Above all, Schumi’s sixth World Cup title, which made him the sole record champion in Japan in 2003, was celebrated with great enthusiasm.
It has now been 20 years since Michael Schumacher celebrated his penultimate of a total of seven titles at Suzuka. Pictures showed the then 34-year-old happily posing next to the race track on a forklift, wearing an unbuttoned team shirt belonging to his brother Ralf.
“Yes, he had my shirt on. I then put on a different one, I wanted to spare people my naked upper body,” Ralf Schumacher reported with a laugh on the “formel1.de” YouTube channel and added: “We had many legendary ones Celebrations. At that time he was still working for Karl-Heinz Zimmermann in catering, that was neutral ground.” The burden of the whole year has always been lifted there.
“In addition, there were the successes that Michael had achieved in numerous ways over the years – and even if not – we still celebrated there in Suzuka.” At that time, the Japanese Grand Prix was always the last race of the season.
Formula 1: Schumi needed the forklift for this
In 2003 the party was “very extreme”. “There were ripped pants and so on, I still remember that, but that’s just part of it,” reported the now 48-year-old. The younger Schumacher brother revealed that many party participants from the paddock drove to the hotel in the evening with the forklift in question. “I was sitting there too. Those were fun memories that I wouldn’t want to miss,” Ralf looked back.
Before the hotel we still had to visit the karaoke stalls. “That’s when everything really came together and that lasted until 5 a.m. in the morning in 2003. I still remember that because I flew to Shanghai in the morning and had to stop the following interview several times because I was so sick,” said Ralf Schumacher , who added: “But they were still good times.”