Ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella has spoken about how he would’ve loved to have been Michael Schumacher’s team-mate, with the duo having only ever raced each other when at different teams.
The Italian is best known for his stint at Renault, with Fisichella having been Fernando Alonso’s team-mate in 2005 and 2006, the years when the Spaniard claimed his two titles.
Fisichella enjoyed a 14-year career at the pinnacle of motorsport, which started in 1996 with Minardi, before retiring at the end of the 2009 season, having replaced Felipe Massa for half a year at Ferrari.
Fisichella saw Schumacher’s brilliance first-hand, with the duo having often also competed in charity F1 football matches.
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The 50-year-old has since revealed that he had “so many great moments” with the seven-time World Champion, who never “sweated” at any event.
“Unfortunately, I’ve never raced in the same team, it would have been useful to see his telemetry. But we shared so many great moments at races and with the drivers’ national team,” Fisichella told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Sometimes he would get out of the car or finish a football match and he didn’t even seem to have sweated.”
Fisichella recently addressed Schumacher’s 2013 skiing accident which left the German with traumatic brain injuries, with the father of Mick Schumacher having not been seen since his horrible accident.
The Italian labelled it as “cruel” that such an accident happened to the 91-time Grand Prix winner, who “rewrote the history of Formula One”.
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“He was a great football fan and we regularly kicked a ball together. As a colleague, he was an incredible opponent, and he rewrote the history of Formula One,” he told RAI Italy.
“Having raced with him, he has given me so much, and the few times I came in front made me even more proud because he is a great champion. It is a cruel fate that someone who as a race so often risked his life is badly injured while skiing.”
One of Fisichella’s most famous moments in Formula 1 came before he switched mid-season to Ferrari in 2009, with the Italian having claimed a shock pole position and podium for Force India at the Belgian Grand Prix.