Former Top Gear producer Andy Wilman has shared a heartfelt story about when former The Grand Tour and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson interviewed seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher in 1999.
The duo travelled to Maranello to interview the German driver as part of a TV series called The Science of Speed. Wilman detailed how they were able to shut down a bar in the Italian city to carry out the interview, and Schumacher made the most of enjoying the empty bar, avoiding the hordes of fans.
“Schumacher – my favourite driver. Jeremy and I made this TV series called The Science of Speed in 1999 for BBC, it was BBC 1, and it was all science department stuff. And each episode was a different aspect of speed, and one is about people,” Wilman told the Midweek F1 podcast.
“So obviously, [Schumacher] had to be in it. So Ross Brawn gets us the interview with him. We go to Mugello, and he’s testing, and it’s the week before he goes to Japan to finally win the world championship for Ferrari. A lot on his plate.
“And I remember it’s like if there’s one team testing, you don’t have to pay Bernie any money to film at the track. And we get there, and they go, ‘We need another 10 grand off you because there’s a young kid in a Sauber last-minute test. He’s called Kimi Räikkönen’s, and they’re testing him out and they don’t think he’s got enough experience to do F1.’ Remember, he got that provisional superlicence, but he’s there. We don’t know that.
“Anyway, we meet Schumacher, and we said, ‘We want to talk to you back at your hotel for a…’ and his manager, Sabine, says, ‘Yeah, I’ll give you half an hour. We’ll do it back at the hotel when he’s finished testing.’ So, I go back to the hotel with a film crew, and it’s a businessman’s hotel in Mugello.
“So, I go up to the manager, and I go, ‘Can we shut your bar for a few hours while we do an interview?’ And he went ‘No’, and we were like ‘It’s with Michael Schumacher who’s staying with you’, and his face was like John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty, ‘Moment’, and then he just ushers everyone out of this bar. Everyone’s lobbed out, shuts the bar, we set it up, we film with him, and he’s really lovely, and he talks about anything.
Ralf Schumacher and Michael Schumacher
Photo by: XPB Images
“He says Hakkinen is often faster than him. He talks about smacking into Villeneuve and why he did it. And that sort of stuff. And then Sabine’s going, you know, ‘It’s 40 minutes now. Wrap it.’ So we all wrap up and we start packing everything up and he doesn’t move.
“And we’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ And he’s like, ‘How long’s this bar stay shut?’ And I was like, ‘Well, ’til we finished.’ And he went, ‘So nobody can come in here while you’re in here?’ I was like, ‘No.’
“‘I’ll have a beer then.’ And then he had another like half an hour. We slowed down our packing up. And he said, ‘You’ve got to understand, in Italy, I can’t go anywhere. I’m like the world’s highest-paid travelling salesman. I have dinner in my room, ring my wife, and that’s it. Now I can be in a bar.'”
After the interview concluded, F1 CEO at the time, Bernie Ecclestone, almost didn’t allow them to have the footage. But Schumacher insisted that, as he had given them the time to have the conversation, they must be allowed the footage.
“And we just adored him. And then Bernie wouldn’t give us the footage when we cut the interview together for Villeneuve and him. Bernie’s like, ‘That’s old news, son. Dead and buried. It stays in the vaults.’ Then he rang back later on. He went, ‘I’ve changed my mind. You can have it.’
“‘Oh, thanks, Bernie.’ He went, ‘I just need a fax from Michael saying it’s OK.’ So we ring his other manager, Willi Weber. He goes, ‘I’m with Bernie. That stuff is the past. It’s ancient history.’ He goes, ‘But I will ask Michael.’ And then Willi Weber rings back and goes, ‘Michael went, no, I gave him the interview. I don’t want to watch it again on telly to be honest, but I did give him the interview.’ So he signs the fax. It’s all right. He was proper. Yeah, we liked him.”
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