A racing driver’s helmet cannot be compared to a footballer’s jersey. Especially not as a devotional item. The jersey catches sweat, protects against wind, can be washed and then hung in the closet. Anyone who takes it off on the pitch gets naked on top and sees a yellow card as a punishment. The helmet protects the head, saves lives, and even improves the streamlined nature of the driver and car. And the moment it is removed again, the helmet is the decisive prop in a metamorphosis that may only exist in motorsport: the racing driver, barely on the seat of a machine and reduced to frenzy and skill, becomes again to humans. With facial expressions and the ability to speak.
You have to be a racing driver to understand what Lewis Hamilton felt at the moment when the record world champion’s son presented him with a record world champion’s helmet on Sunday. Mick Schumacher, 21, was holding the head protection Michael Schumacher, 51, which he had worn on his head in his last season in Formula 1 in 2012. It was a gesture by the Schumacher family that at that moment was appropriate to the occasion on so many levels that they were forgiven for missing the kitsch by a margin. 70 years of Formula 1. 1029 races! But for a minute, the two most successful drivers in history were tied: both Hamilton and Schumacher had 91 race wins.
“I have a bad memory,” said Hamilton later, “but this moment has to stay. Today is definitely more than just another victory.” The moment won’t last. It should pass as quickly as Formula 1 can travel, in 14 days at the next race it will be over. Hamilton also meant the memory of him.
If a son gives a gift to his father’s successor at the moment when he succeeds, that also means that it is perfectly all right for what happens to happen. He agrees, so to speak, to the line of succession. Mick Schumacher was asked at the Nürburgring how he felt about the fading of his father’s unique selling point. He answered as if he didn’t understand the question at all. “My father always said: records are there to be broken.”
This Michael Schumacher helmet, which Hamilton held up into the sky like a trophy and also dragged to the press conference, told even more. He revealed something about Schumacher’s peculiarities, his quirks beyond the perfectionist. About the Schumacher who swapped numbers with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, who asked for the “3” instead of the “4” because he only wanted to drive with odd numbers. That Schumacher who always got into the car from the left side because he otherwise feared trouble. Only later realized that it worked just as well from the right. And who wore this amazing Asian dragon on his helmet, which now passed into Hamilton’s possession. A playful dragon that never really wanted to fit into the prosaic landscape around Kerpen, and which Schumacher once justified: “A newspaper in China chose this for me as a symbol of power and strength. I liked it.” A racing driver’s helmet can be very personal.
At Schumacher, there is also the fact that during his active days he promoted the safety of head armor in Formula 1: The crash helmets of the early world champions were leather caps, which were supplemented by drawstring glasses to protect the eyes from the wind and dirt. The helmets in Schumacher’s generation were technical marvels, as ingenious as the racing cars. All of this did not leave its mark on Lewis Hamilton, who had said the day before that equalizing the record would not mean much to him. He was wrong. He already took possession of Schumacher’s second helmet, which he now remembered.
Both recognized the future superiority of their team early on
Before he moved to Mercedes for the 2013 season, Schumacher had given him one. The first helmet was for his successor in the team. The second, the one on Sunday at the Nürburgring, was his successor in the history books. “Nobody could have imagined even getting close to what Michael has achieved,” said Hamilton now. To get 91 victories, that was difficult for him to understand.
And since Hamilton and Schumacher are now temporarily mathematically on the same level according to the indicator number “91”, people are driven by the longing for the answer to a probing question: Who is the greatest? It is one of the nastiest nasties in sport that it can never be answered. Not even if you limit yourself to just the numbers. Schumacher is at the top of many rankings with seven world championship titles, 91 race wins, 77 fastest race laps and 24 082 kilometers in the lead. But he needed 307 appearances. Juan Manuel Fangio clinched five world championships, 24 wins and 29 pole positions in just 51 Grand Prix. That made the Argentine more efficient – but was he also better? Also: what about those who died prematurely, with Alberto Ascari, Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna? There are only pilots who were the best of their generation. Like Hamilton and Schumacher, even if the man from Kerpen needed 14 less races for 91 wins than his successor from Stevenage. “You can’t overestimate Lewis’ achievements. The brands he leaves behind will probably be inaccessible,” congratulated Sebastian Vettel, who, as four-time world champion two years ago, believed himself to be on a level with Hamilton. Nevertheless, it is like this: “Michael was better than anyone I have seen. He had a natural talent that I have not experienced in anyone else.”
Behind both drivers, Schumacher and Hamilton, there was and is a meticulous team that pulled them along. Schumacher had Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. Hamilton has Toto Wolff, James Vowles and James Allison, who also worked for Schumacher. And they sat and sit in superior cars. Mercedes has not been defeated since the switch to the complex hybrid engines in 2014. Team boss Wolff pointed out that the successful application for a future dominant team would be an achievement. “Lewis has put himself in the position to drive for the best team. Many other talented drivers have maneuvered themselves with their behavior and with wrong decisions on the sidelines,” praised Wolff, which he casually praised himself.
That, too, unites Schumacher and Hamilton far beyond the moment: One dared to join the dreary Ferrari team as a two-time world champion, the other as a one-off team to the dreary Mercedes team. Even then, there was a helmet from Schumacher for this.
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