Motorsport reporter Ralf Bach met a 19-year-old Schumacher before he got his Formula One break and the pair became good friends over the course of the German’s sparkling career. In 1988, the Sport Bild man was a fledgling editor at German car news magazine Auto Zeitung when he met the young Michael Schumacher and even then he spotted a glimmer of huge potential in his new friend. Recalling his earliest memories of Schumacher for tz.de, Mr Bach wrote: “In the beginning was the fire, it was burning in his eyes.”
It wasn’t just people watching Schumacher who could see the talent, the man himself had utter confidence in his own ability and future.
Bach added: “Even then his gaze narrowed when talking about motorsport… he knew of his special skills.
“Already at that time Schumi believed in his abilities.
Mr Bach described the fierceness of Schumacher’s first serious rival, Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
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He said: “I accompanied the two to Formula 3 races or to the tests in the Mercedes junior team.
“We hung out with Corinna, later Mrs. Schumacher, but back then she was still with Frentzen.
“Sometimes we went to a bar where Schumi danced to Marianne-Rosenberg songs while I asked in vain for Stones songs to be played.
“We ate pizza at the Junkersdorf Birkenhof, sometimes we celebrated our birthday, sometimes we hung out on the kart track in Kerpen.
“We philosophised what it would be like if Michael and Heinz would drive in Formula One.
“Schumi was already very self-confident at the time. Except for Senna everyone should watch out, he said.”
Bach described how suddenly everything changed after Michael made his Formula One debut at the Belgium Grand Prix in 1991 saying the fast pace did not give the young man any time to reflect.
They fell out over a number of crashes, including the controversial Hill 1994 smash and Villeneuve 1997 collision, which they disagreed on with Michael at one stage refusing to allow any criticism and blasting: “Either you are for me or against me.”
But the pair remained close despite their differences of opinion and, while other news outlets were reporting Schumacher was ready to retire after being seriously injured when his car slammed into a Silverstone tyre wall at almost 200km/h, Bach said he got an inside scoop from his friend about how engineers were coming up with a secret plan to keep Schumacher racing.
Bach said Schumacher told him Ferrari wanted to build a car with a hand throttle and brake on the steering wheel to help him drive with a broken shin.
Other papers said Schumacher was ready to quit but Bach knew otherwise, he wrote: “Ferrari boss Jean Todt was stunned because secret internals of Ferrari were leaked to the outside.
“He even called me at home and wanted to know who had told me about it.
“Only he, Ross Brawn, Chief Mechanic Nigel Stepney and Michael knew about the idea.”
Todt asked if Brawn or Stepney had told Bach about the idea but trusted Schumacher so much he did not think to ask if it could have been Michael, wrote Bach.