Movie Review: Schumacher (2021 Film) 

Welcome to our 3rd edition of the Movie Review. In this week’s blog post we will be reviewing the movie called Schumacher – based on the world’s greatest driver of all time, Michael Schumacher. This movie explored the life and career of the 7 time Formula 1 champion, definitely making it worth the watch. It was released in 2021 in Germany and was directed (and co-directed) by an all German crew.

Movie Summary

Michael’s story was like many others in the limelight – cameras in his face, name in the news headlines, millions of followers worldwide but it was his strong will and determination that put him in the center of global attention. Although this movie captured him in the spotlight, it also went to show he was more than just a famous person, he was also just a regular guy at one point. If it’s one thing you will take away from this movie, it would be his journey and everything he had to go through to get to where he is today and his story will serve as the inspiration guide for many who share the same type of dreams as him. 

But it’s not just the strong characteristics that make a person, it’s also the negative ones too which this movie did a good job of portraying. His parents, children, and partner (who also happens to be his childhood sweetheart) are at the heart of this story and are now ready to tell it on his behalf.  

Mini Biography and Look into the Life Altering Incident

Since the movie is based on the facts of his life, there is no need to do a deep dive into the true story, simply because that’s what the whole movie is about. Instead, we will cover a mini biography and explore the one incident that occurred that really sent his world shaking. 

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Michael Schumacher was born on January 3, 1969 near Cologne, Germany to working class parents, Rolf Schumacher and Elisabeth Schumacher. He is one of 3 kids – Ralf Schumacher (younger brother) and Sebastian Stahl (step brother) – and all brothers have one thing in common, they are all part of the racing world. From the young age of 4.5 years old, Michael has always wanted to live on the edge and be a part of the automotive racing world. He began racing karts in a homemade kart (built by his father) who happened to be managing the local karting track in Kerpen, Germany – their hometown, at the time. 

When he was 12, he obtained his first license and began racing competitively. Between 1984 and 1987, he won countless German and European kart championships, which included the Formula Konig Series. 1988 was when he began racing for car companies, starting out with Ford. He raced in the Formula Ford series and competed in the German Formula 3 series over the next 2 years, even claiming the title in 1990. In ‘91 he continued his journey climbing up the ladder when he joined onto the Mercedes junior racing programme in the World Endurance Championship – winning races in Mexico City and at Autopolis, while he was driving the Sauber-Mercedes C291. During the early 1990’s he also briefly competed in the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship and the German Touring Car Championship.

Also during 1991, Schumacher made his Formula One debut at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, actually entering as a replacement driver for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot (incarcerated for spraying CS gas at a London taxicab-drivers face). A man by the name of Eddie Jordan signed Michael onto this racing team after Michael assured him he had a vast amount of experience in the challenging Spa circuit. This circuit featured a brutal Eau Rouge corner, which Michael learned to master when he used a borrowed bicycle to ride around the track. He ended up qualifying seventh in his first competition in an F1 vehicle. From here, he was quickly signed by Benetton-Ford for the next race and didn’t take long to show his potential.  

It really was considered to be the roaring ‘90’s for Michael as he saw success every year after. But let’s fast forward a bit to 1995, when the company he was still signed on with (Benetton) switched the engines in the vehicles the driver’s were given to Renault engines. Michael successfully defended his crown that season, gaining 30 more points than the second placed driver, who was not an unfamiliar face to him – Damon Hill. Alongside his teammate Johnny Herbert, he helped Benetton win its first (and only) Constructors’ Championship. During 1994 and 1995 – his first two championship seasons – Schumacher won 17 races, achieved 21 podiums, and climbed ten pole positions. During this span of 31 grands prix, he only qualified for a position worse than 4th place once when he competed in the 1995 Belgium Grand Prix, when he landed 16th on the grid, but somehow still managed to pull off a win. 

Only a year later in 1996, he signed with Ferrari – a very risk move at the time, simply because of Ferrari’s dry spell when it came to winning a race – they hadn’t won a title since 1979. But of course, all this changed during Michael’s first year of racing with them at the Scuderia. He pushed the car to it’s limits and managed to finish in 3rd place in the driver’s championship, behind only the two William’s drivers. 

After several years of trying to rebuild Ferrari’s racing cars, Schumacher finally managed to help them win the Constructors title in 1999. However, his hopes to do it again for another Drivers’ Championship were crushed (literally) when he broke his leg at the British Grand Prix, after what was blamed on a brake failure causing him to exit the track while facing a high speed corner before crashing heavily into a tyre barrier. This impacted his racing dreams negatively, causing him to be unable to compete for the next 6 races. 

Once he returned (as healed as he could be) he played the second driver role to his teammate Eddie Irvine in order to help set his team’s dream of conquering a WDC, but once again they were beaten by Hakkinen in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.  

Continuing to Success – The 2000’s

In 2000, after many years of frustration and after being reunited with the best engineers, aerodynamics and strategists, Ferrari gave Michael the opportunity to take yet another World Championship title – Ferrari’s first since Jody Scheckter in 1979 after a nail biting year long battle with Mika Hakkinen. The fight was tied until the very end when it came down to the final race in Japan, where this time, despite the early lead of Hakkinen, who always had the better start at Suzuka, Schumacher finally beat the Finnish driver from McLaren Mercedes.  

2001 saw the same kind of success and every year after this Michael was gaining awards and titles to his name. I have included a yearly timeline below of the successes he saw by year: 

• 2001 – Michael broke Alain Prost’s record for most grand prix wins (while en route to his fourth drivers title) 
• 2002 – He took his fifth Driver’s title (equalling the record set by Juan Manuel Fangio)
  • Also broke Nigel Mansell’s record of 9 race wins for most victories in a season, scoring 11 and finishing every race on the podium 
• 2003 – He broke Fangio’s record by winning the Driver’s title for the sixth time in a closely contested season
  • His brother Ralf became a regular race contender and scored some victories 
• 2004 – Schumacher won a record twelve of the first thirteen races of the season
  • Clinched the seventh driver’s title of his unequaled F1 career where it all began for him- at the Belgian Grand Prix 
  • Finished the season with a record 148 points 

2005

2005 – Beginning of the End 

This season was a struggle for Schumacher which was one indicator that he probably wouldn’t last much longer in the racing industry. The Ferrari package was far from ideal especially because of their Bridgestone tyres. Very soon in the year, the German company admitted they no longer had opportunities to fight for the title. But despite this, Schumacher had some moments that would go down in history; his fight with Fernando Alonso in the San Marino GP, a pole in Hungary, and ultimately and maybe the most important – he finished 3rd in the World Championship standings, above Juan Pablo Montoya, with an inferior car.  

On September 25, 2005, after ruling Formula One as its champion for 1813 consecutive days, Michael was finally forced to give up the crown to Fernando Alonso of Spain. 

2006

Only a year after his struggles, Schumacher declared this would be his last season of racing. Despite doing better in this season than last, it was not enough and losing the title in the final race of the season, really had an impact on this decision. After three races, he had 11 points and was already 17 points behind Alonso. He did go on to win the two following races – which were his first wins in 18 months – barring the boycott-marred 2005 United States Grand Prix. 

There were a couple more races after this but Schumacher didn’t really do any better to help position himself in a place that would allow him to overtake the leading position of his now rival. They were tied at one point, and then Schumacher took the lead slightly but a series of misfortunes and problems followed shortly after and ultimately caused him to lose the title.

To find out more about Michael’s racing history and his achievements, please visit https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=1958

The Incident

On December 29, 2013 Michael’s life changed forever. While out skiing with his son (Mick Schumacher who was only 14 at the time) he fell and hit his head on a rock. The pair were skiing down the Combe de Saulire below the Dent de Burgin above Meribel in the French Alps. Schumacher sustained a serious head injury despite having a ski helmet on – but this really was what saved his life. Doctors assured if he wasn’t wearing the helmet he would have died on impact. 

Now Michael was no stranger to skiing, he was actually considered to be an experienced skier, it was just when he went to cross the unsecured off-piste area between Piste Chamois and Piste Mauduit that threw him off guard causing everything else to happen.  

He was airlifted to Grenoble Hospital where he underwent two surgical interventions. After his surgeries the doctors put Schumacher under a medical induced coma because of the brain trauma he just experienced. By March 2014, there were small hopeful signs that were just the beginning of what was to come. In early April, he was showing more signs of consciousness as he was beginning to gradually withdraw from the medically induced coma. 

The timeline (skipping ever so often) below shows the rest of his progress: 

• June 2014 – He left Grenoble Hospital for further rehabilitation at the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland 
• September 2014 – Schumacher left the hospital and was brought home for further rehabilitation
  • His family chose to keep a lot of things out of the media so there was very little information about his condition or recovery progress 
• November 2014 – It was reported that Schumacher was “paralyzed and in a wheelchair” and that he “couldn’t speak and has memory problems” 
• May 2015 – Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm stated his condition was slowly improving “considering the severeness of the injury he had”  
• September 2016 – His lawyer Felix Damm told a German court that his client “cannot walk” in a response from December 2015 in German publication Die Bunte that he could walk again 
• July 2019 – His former Ferrari manager Jean Todt stated that Schumacher was making “good progress” but also “struggles to communicate” 
• September 2019 – Le Parisien reported that Michael had been admitted to the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris to undergo treatment by a cardiovascular surgeon named Philippe Menasché who was described as a “pioneer in cell surgery”
  • Following the treatment – which involved him receiving an anti-inflammatory stem cell perfusion – medical staff stated that Schumacher was “conscious” 

Schumacher’s family continues to maintain strict privacy about his condition and as of 2024, he has not been in the public eye since the accident. There was an interview that was released in April 2023 that Die Aktuelle published called the “first interview” with Schumacher which did include alleged quotes from him about his health and family but this was proven to be falsified even going as far to be fabricated using generative artificial intelligence. His family said they would sue the magazine, which fired the editor responsible. 

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Characters in the Movie

This movie featured everyone playing themselves as no actual fictional characters were included. The scenes and footage used in the movie were all produced in cooperation with Schumacher’s family – even using private archives, Formula One archive footage, and interviews:

• Michael Schumacher (self)
• Corinna Schumacher (wife)
• Ralf Schumacher (brother)  
• Mick Schumacher (son) 
• Mika Hakkinen (prominent figure in Formula 1 racing) 
• Damon Hill (prominent figure in Formula 1 racing) 
• Jean Todt (prominent figure in Formula 1 racing) 

Overall Movie Rating

Michael’s journey to success started out like many of the greats – a passion for cars and access to go kart racing – all at a young age. But as mentioned previously, it really is a person’s struggles and all they have to go through to get to where they are in life today that really makes things more interesting. This movie was given a 7.6 rating on IMDb. I have included the trailer below for those of you who haven’t gotten a chance to watch it yet. 

The entire movie is pretty short in length, only reaching 1 hour and 52 minutes. But the movie can be streamed online through various websites still so not to worry if you missed out or want to watch it again. 

Final Thoughts

Let us know what you think over on our socials! Did this movie make your top list of documentaries?