Sebastian Vettel admits that getting behind the wheel of his idol and friend Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002 ahead of last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix was “a very emotional moment”.<\/p>\n
This year marks 30 years since Schumacher joined the Scuderia, with the German taking victory in the 1996 Italian GP as he embarked on an 11-year spell with Ferrari<\/a> which yielded five drivers’ and six teams’ titles.<\/p>\n After returning to Formula 1 following semi-retirement, Schumacher retired from the sport in 2012 after three years with Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vettel, who grew up with Schumacher as his boyhood hero before becoming friends with the seven-time World Champion during his own F1 career, was on hand at Monza to drive Schumacher’s F2002.<\/p>\n The car helped Schumacher to clinch his third title with Ferrari in 2002 during a campaign where the German finished on the podium in all 17 races, a feat still unmatched.<\/p>\n “First and foremost, it’s for my friend and to remember that, which was a very emotional moment,” said Vettel when asked about the experience ahead of driving the F2002.<\/p>\n “He’s my childhood hero and later on we had a deep connection with the friendship and got fairly close and shared so many nice memories. I think we’d much rather see him drive today than me, myself included.<\/p>\n “I’m looking forward to the moment in the car because I think it will be a moment where we will feel Michael and what he stands for still and hear him.<\/p>\n “I think there’s so much more than just a couple of laps. It’s his car, but it’s a championship-winning car. It’s a Ferrari. In Monza, around Tifosi.<\/p>\n “I think that there’s a lot more in there that makes a connection to me. I mean, I love the sport. I don’t race anymore, but I still love it, and I probably will love racing as long as I live. That’s why I believe I care so much, and these moments are so special.”<\/p>\n Schumacher’s former team mate Rubens Barrichello was also on hand over the weekend and drove the F2002 on Saturday, while Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> used a special livery inspired by Schumacher<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sebastian Vettel admits that getting behind the wheel of his idol and friend Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002 ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-884444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}