Max Verstappen has shared by no means been seen images of Michael Schumacher with the world.
The back-to-back Formulation 1 world champion is ramping up his preparations as he units out to seize a 3rd straight crown for Purple Bull in 2023.
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However earlier than the season will get underway, F1 followers are being handled to an inside look backstage as Netflix’s smash hit Drive to Survive releases season 5.
Verstappen options closely all through the fourth episode within the new season — which was launched to the world on February 24 — that focuses totally on former Haas driver Mick Schumacher.
The episode titled Like Father, Like Son? shines a lightweight on the struggles the well-known teen endured earlier than he was in the end let go by the Haas group.
It’s Verstappen nevertheless who as soon as once more steals the present as he talks about rising up alongside the Schumacher household.
Max’s father Jos was teammates with Michael at Benetton, with an outdated interview displaying the pair being requested if they’d let their youngsters turned F1 drivers in an interview filmed throughout the noughties. The query prompts amusing from Michael.
“I feel this could possibly be the primary time we now have an argument if our two can be racing,” says the German.
However it’s what comes subsequent that can go away hearts around the globe swooning. As Max talks concerning the relationship between the 2 households a clip of Max as a toddler is proven partaking with Michael earlier than a by no means earlier than seen picture flashes on the display.
“We used to go on holidays once we have been little collectively, the 2 households, and these type of recollections will stick with me,” explains Max, who’s now a 35-time race winner in F1.
“For each of us to be in F1 is wonderful and likewise for Michael, he’s a really proud dad for positive.”
The picture reveals Michael sitting on a dangling chair with a child Max on one knee and his daughter, Gina-Maria, on the opposite.
Mick was changed by F1 journeyman Nico Hulkenberg – and could have sit out 2023 as a reserve driver at Mercedes behind Sir Lewis Hamilton and his hotshot teammate George Russell.
Drive to Survive charts Mick’s troublesome sophomore season in 2022 – together with his horror 170mph accident in Saudi Arabia.
Mick’s tough yr noticed him outscored by his teammate, the returning Danish veteran Kevin Magnussen.
The present outlines Mick’s struggles – and the stress that got here with racing below the Schumacher title.
“Mick has the lineage of one of many best drivers the game has ever seen,” says F1 journalist Will Buxton.
“However it stays to be seen if [he] has the identical character as his dad.”
Haas boss Steiner stated the Schumacher title was “blessing and a curse” for Mick.
However in characteristically non-nonsense vogue, the famously foul-mouthed group principal says sooner or later the younger German could have “arise” and be his “personal man”.
Mick opens up about his struggles with stress within the present, together with the candid admission that “desires don’t at all times come true”.
His dad Michael is likely one of the best F1 drivers of all time, dominating the game within the early 2000s after rising to energy within the 90s.
He raced from 1991 to 2006, and once more from 2010 to 2012 – a second act of his profession which noticed him grow to be instrumental in organising the dominant Mercedes group.
The German gained 5 world championships with Ferrari and two for Benetton.
Schumacher retired in 2012, however only a yr later he was concerned within the life-changing snowboarding accident whereas on the slopes with Mick.
He was left in a medically induced coma earlier than being launched house after which ever because it has been close to silence on the driving force’s situation.
His household, led by spouse Corinna, intently shield Michael’s privateness and supply him a quiet life.
Since then there have solely been hints and cryptic rumours about Schumacher’s well being with drip fed info from pals and unnamed sources.
However the one individuals who know for positive are Schumacher’s household and his closest friends.
– with Henry Holloway and James Liveris, The Solar
