Alex Albon has revealed that he was so obsessed with Michael Schumacher as a child that he would throw a tantrum whenever the German icon failed to win a race. Albon fell in love with F1 at the height of Schumacher’s dominance, helping to sow the seeds of wanting to become a racing driver himself.
Albon is preparing to embark on his fifth season in F1, having previously been part of the Red Bull setup before joining Williams at the start of 2022. However, his original love for the sport was centred around Ferrari, who had plenty of success through Schumacher when Albon was growing up.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Albon revealed that he would throw tantrums on the rare occasions that Schumacher failed to beat his rivals. He explained: “I was an obsessed kid when I was growing up. One of my first words was ‘Ferrari’, which I would call ‘Rari’.
“It was Ferrari and then exhausts. I loved seeing four tailpipes, which were ‘smokes’, so I always used to shout out ‘smokes’ or ‘Rari’. In terms of a car feeling, I was a massive Michael Schumacher fan. I used to throw the biggest tantrums as a kid if Michael didn’t win.
“My mum used to have a VHS of a 2001 Formula One highlights review, and I knew all the races that he won that year, so as soon as I had an off, or a bad day or whatever, that was straight in, playing Michael wins.
“It was early on. I always wanted to be a racing driver and my dad used to race. I’d call him semi-professional, I think he’d like that!”
Schumacher remains a hero to thousands of people across the world after firmly establishing himself as one of the sport’s greatest ever drivers. His success with Ferrari helped him to finish his career with seven Drivers’ Championship titles, a record which has only been matched by fellow all-time great Lewis Hamilton.
After retiring from F1 in 2012, Schumacher’s world was turned upside down when he suffered a serious head injury while on a family ski holiday in France. He spent nearly a year in a medically induced coma and updates on his physical condition have been few and far between ever since.
Former F1 driver Timo Glock, who remains close to the Schumacher family, recently admitted that he still struggles to comprehend what happened to his friend and colleague. He said: “It is hard to accept because he is such a legend for the sport and for sure, for the family, it is not an easy time.
“I have a lot of respect for the family and I am not a fan of speculating if you don’t know what is going on in the background. How they deal with it is something we can only respect and accept it how it is. I am still in very good contact with them and with Mick [Schumacher].
“I met him a lot of times during the season at Grand Prix weekends discussing his future and he was asking me what I would recommend. I would never be the person to ask anything personal about his father.”
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