Just over 29 years have passed since Michael Schumacher, 7-time F1 world champion, first got behind the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1 car. After two final seasons with two championships won with Benetton, the German secured a contract with Ferrari, who called on Schumacher hoping to return to winning the world championship after too many years of absence.
Michael Schumacher and his first Ferrari test: the video
The 1995 Formula 1 season ended on November 21 of that year, and Michael Schumacher showed up at Estoril in the Ferrari V12 of that era. Specifically, this was the Ferrari 412T2, a car that was on sale a few years ago, which featured a V12 engine. At the same time, Michael also tested a kind of “prototype” of the 1996 Ferrari with a V10 engine.
Obviously, how could the test go? With the German beginning to set record laps, immediately demonstrating how easy it was for him to adapt to a different car, and also releasing some iconic phrases, such as when he told the engineers: “If only I had had an engine like this in qualifying!” And also: “I don’t know how they haven’t managed to win the championship with this engine.”
Michael Schumacher specifically tested Berger‘s car, with Gerhard‘s settings, and after getting a bit familiar with it, he shattered the record of the now-former Ferrari driver: “We thought Gerhard’s race lap at Estoril was unreachable, at least in a test,” recalled the Ferrari mechanics present. “After all, he had set it during a race! Michael, obviously, had never driven that car. He had never driven to set a time with the V12. It was a cold morning, it took time to warm up the tires. After half an hour, Schumacher had improved Berger’s time by 1.2 seconds. We looked at each other’s faces and couldn’t help but laugh.”
But for Michael, it still wasn’t enough: “There’s a lot of work to do. We can still improve so much,” Schumacher said after the test. Below is the video of Michael Schumacher’s first test.