Todt: “Schumacher was shy and generous. He never thought he was good enough”

Todt talks about the other Schumacher Those who experienced Michael Schumacher’s epic career at Ferrari from the outside may have perceived the German as a driver dedicated exclusively to the track, surly and taciturn. These, however, are only some superficial aspects of the Kaiser’s character: those who knew him in Maranello speak of an all-round leader, capable of leading the team on by example and with simple gestures. Former general manager Jean Todt, who worked with the German for over a decade, explained Schumacher’s professionalism very well but also his more hidden side, a shyness that masked as arrogance. Todt’s words “Michael is a rather fragile person. He doesn’t have that typical authoritarian voice of someone who believes he is superior to others”, these are Todt’s words to the High Performance podcast. “For example, after becoming world champion and before starting the new season, he asked me if I could give him half a day at Fiorano to do some tests and make sure he was still fit. I think that not being sure of being good enough is a great strength. All of us were always afraid of not being good enough. It was perhaps a little painful, because we didn’t enjoy the results as we should have, in fact we forgot them easily, because we were thinking about how to improve for the next race. I think it was a shared vision. within the team.” “Anyone who thinks Michael is arrogant is totally wrong,” he continued. “Michael is a rather shy and generous guy. But he hides his shyness by pretending to be arrogant. After 1997 he understood that he was protected and loved, and the relationship developed in both directions: little by little we went from a professional relationship to one of friendship and family. And he never complained about a mistake by the team.”