Exactly 30 years ago, on August 25, 1991, legendary German Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher began his career in Formula 1 racing, breaking record after record in his rich career and marking an entire generation of fans of the royal racing sport.
This year’s round anniversary of the beginning of Michael Schumacher’s career will unfortunately continue to be marked by concerns about Schumi’s health, while ten years ago it was completely different. At the time, I was lucky enough, as a contributor to an Italian website that reported exclusively on Formula 1, to attend live a series of side events organized by Schumacher himself to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his first appearance in f1.
On the Wednesday before the Belgian Grand Prix in 2011, Schumi held a celebration in his home village of Kerpen. The event took place at the karting track where Michael made his first racing laps. At that time, many motorsport personalities competed in karting, among whom, in addition to Schumi, stood out Sebastian Vettel, former Formula 1 racer Heinz Harald Frentzen and Schumi's younger brother Ralf.
Let me add that I then stumbled a bit before arriving at the kart track and came to another kart track named Michael Schumacher. It was founded by Schumi himself and was then managed by his father. Schumacher's legend is also evidenced by the fact that the kart track stands on Michael Schumacher Straße, so the street was named after Michael, despite the fact that he was only 42 years old at the time.
After the mid-day meeting, however, the entire Formula 1 caravan moved to Belgium. Here, too, there was talk of only twenty years of f1 by Michael Schumacher, who had a special, gold-decorated helmet prepared for the occasion. The highlight of the celebrations was certainly the Saturday before the race, when Michael organized a party in the motorhome of his then Mercedes team. It was a real parade of famous and popular people in the world of motorsport. I’ve been able to spot Schumi’s former teammates like Max’s father Jos Verstappen and Martin Brundle, as well as younger Formula 1 racers like Lewis Hamilton, who has achieved and overtaken Schumi in many records in recent years, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Jarno Trulli. The party was also attended by Schumi's wife Corinna and the now deceased Niki Lauda.
Source: https://www.fpal.org/