the difference with Verstappen-Corriere.it

Meanwhile, the date: 10 September 2000. the day on which Michael Schumacher he wins the Italian GP in Monza, reaching 41 successes, exactly as happened to Verstappen last Sunday in Canada. Like Ayrton Senna. The reactions: very different. Max is a boy who doesn’t give in to his emotions. He doesn’t show them, he protects the most intimate feelings, according to a very strict education given by father Jos. Well, we thought it was a bit like that too Schumacher. Instead, surprisingly, that September 10, during the television press conference, just after the end of the race, he collapsed. Literally. To the question What does it mean for you to reach Senna’s record of 41 victories? he managed to answer only in a few words. It means a lot to me, to then give in to uncontrollable cryingwelcomed with an equally moving tenderness by Mika Hakkinen, his first rival for the race for that title, a McLaren driver.

While the brother Ralphthird place, was trying to stem the emotion that had now taken over inside that small room equipped with (relentless) video camera. The reveal scene. It offers an unexpected and even fragile side of a man known above all for determination, discipline, extraordinary ability to hold the scene. Competitive or not. Until then. An aspect of his personality that Michael will show for rare yet memorable doses in the following years. However, the context of that Italian Grand Prix must be remembered in order to better understand the atmosphere in Monza.

During the first lap, an accident, triggered at the Variante della Roggia, had caused the death of an unfortunate course marshal, Paolo Gislimberti, hit by the wheel of Frentzen’s Jordan. Perhaps Schumacher had been informed of the matter shortly before, since the competition had not been stopped. Perhaps for Michael, fresh from the accident at Silverstone the previous year, not really and not yet much loved by the Ferrari fans after four years of broken promises, that victory held special meanings. And it put the outcome of the championship back in the balance.

A championship he won, the first in Ferrari overalls. The first of a legendary series of five consecutive titles. And then Seine. He had been the inevitable reference, the pilot who had made his debut the most difficult, tapping him on the track, in the paddock, as happens when a champion recognizes something precious in a rival that he would like exclusively. There was him, Schumacher, ahead of Senna in the World Championship on May 1, 1994; he was there, Schumacher, behind Senna at the moment of the accident at Tamburello, Imola. And it was he, Schumacher, who inaugurated his own era, immediately following the death of Ayrton.

In some ways it was a dramatic handover. Made sore by mourning, by memory, by more intimate and secret memories that Schumacher certainly kept in the depths of his soul. Not at any cost and forever. A man, finally, unable to hold back the emotion, as happens to each of us. Closer, therefore, and more loved, since then, also for this reason. Well before becoming Schumi, becoming a legend. And to stumble, too, in a cruel spite of his own destiny.