Imagine being the younger brother of Bill Gates and taking a job in the computer industry. However good you were at your job, you would never escape the questions: “What’s he like? Was he always so geeky?” Or, more tellingly, “Why aren’t you a billionaire?” Welcome to Ralf Schumacher’s world. Little brother by 6½ years to the Bill Gates of motor racing, the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, Ralf is accustomed to living in the shadow of his celebrity big brother.
“What’s funny is that a lot of people think Michael has achieved so much success compared to me because he loves motor racing and I don’t, which is crazy,” says Ralf. “I’d be very frustrated if I tried to beat my brother. It will be a long time before we see another seven-time world champion. I’m still here after 10 years because of my love of the sport. I love what I do.
“When I first came into Formula One in 1997, I thought, ‘Okay, give it three years and I’ll be fed up with the constant travelling and the hard work’. But I’ve found that I’m still in love with it.”
Still, there is no getting away from the fact that Ralf, at a rumoured $18m (£10.3m) a year from Toyota, is one of the best-paid drivers in the paddock, yet he has recorded only six victories during his nine seasons in F1.
“To be honest, I expected more; there have been too many lows and not enough highs,” he admits. “I did my best, sometimes I made mistakes, but 90% of the time I was right on it and it just didn’t produce results. Like other drivers, I still dream of winning a world championship, and I think I can do it with Toyota.”
But maybe not this year. Although he finished third in Australia last weekend, he was 14th in the first race in Bahrain and only managed to scrape a point in Malaysia when he finished eighth. Fortunately, his sense of humour came to the fore. As he stepped out of the car in Bahrain, he turned to the Toyota Motorsports president John Howett, who loves gardening, and said wryly: “Time to open that garden shop, I think.”
Ralf’s “of course I want to be in front of Michael, not behind him” attitude indicates that the level of competition is still strong between the brothers. But even Ralf’s moment of glory, when he won the Canadian Grand Prix in 2001, with Michael finishing second, was overshadowed by his brother’s fourth world championship title. Even the name Schumacher has sometimes brought more hassle than glory. “It opened doors, but then I had to prove myself,” he says. And it led to a nightmare experience with Damon Hill, his teammate at Jordan. “Damon was the most difficult teammate I’ve ever had. He was always playing politics. I suppose one has to understand he probably didn’t like the name Schumacher very much. Being beaten by one of us was bad enough; the thought of two of us coming along to beat him was too much for him to bear.”
Not that the younger Schumacher is against Englishmen in general. “Jenson (Button) was a great teammate,” he says. “We had a very good relationship, he is very open and a nice character. He tells me the nightclubs in London are the best in the world.”
Nightclubs are not really Ralf’s thing. He is happily married to former model Cora Brinkmann. The couple have a four-year-old son, David, who shares his father’s passion, not for racing but for Harry Potter. “We both love Harry Potter. We curl up on the sofa and read together,” he says. “He saw the first three films with me, but I didn’t allow him to watch the fourth one; it was too scary for me, let alone for him.”
Inadvertently I then manage to ruin his weekend. “Have you read the latest one?” I inquire.
“Which one is that?” “Can’t recall the title. You know — the one in which Albus Dumbledore dies.”
“Oh, does he? I didn’t know that, thanks for telling me! I’m only on page 250. The last one I read was the big one, Order Of The Phoenix; started it before Bahrain and finished it on the plane back from Malaysia.”
Never mind, maybe the ending will be different in German, I tell him. He laughs. In fact, these days Ralf seems a lot happier in his own skin.
Having spent 15 years or so living in the shadow of his famous brother, he is now living in the shadow of a famous wife. Cora is regularly in the lifestyle pages of the German version of Hello! magazine, having indulged in racing Minis and having just become an ambassador for Seat. “I support her 100%,” says Ralf. “It’s important for her that she does something for herself, and important for our marriage that she lives life in a way that makes her happy.”
This metamorphosis into his own man has resulted in a split with his manager, Willi Weber, who still guides Michael. A new man sits by his side, and when I ask whether Guido Piedade is the new Willi, Ralf replies: “It’s different. Guido and I have been friends for 20 years. It’s more a case of opening up new markets and possibilities, which hasn’t been done so far.” Slap on the wrist for Willi.
As a leading light of the F1 drivers’ trade union, the GPDA, Ralf does his fair share of talking to his colleagues.
“It’s difficult to get one opinion from 22 people, but we manage,” he says. “I have seen different meetings in F1 that were far less professional than ours — the team managers, for example. We’re there to advise on safety, although I’ve heard some stupid drivers complain about the Hans (head and neck safety device) or the higher cockpit that was designed to give us greater protection. How silly is it to complain about something that is there to help us? We don’t get involved in all aspects of F1. That’s up to Bernie (Ecclestone) and Max (Mosley, president of the sport’s governing body, the FIA), who understand the whole picture. I trust Max 100% to do the best for us in terms of safety.”
Ralf has had several serious accidents, one of the biggest being at Indianapolis in 2004, when Michael had to drive round watching the marshals trying to get his brother out of the car, so safety is a big issue, but so is entertainment. “I like the new qualifying system, but I still miss the quickest car getting pole position,” he says. “We must give the fans a good show.”
Two weeks ago Fernando Alonso admitted he would have been a double-glazing salesman if he hadn’t been a racing driver. This week it is Ralf’s turn to admit: “I would have been a salesman. I could sell anything. I could even, as you say in England, sell coals to Newcastle.”
He’s laughing again and heading off towards his super salesman’s very fast Toyota.
