Giancarlo Fisichella: "Michael Schumacher is the best Formula 1 driver ever"

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, former Scuderia Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella gave a long interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport during which he retraced the stages of his career and recalled some very interesting stories. Here are some of Giancarlo Fisichella’s comments:

“The passion and love I have for motorsport racing is huge, a sport to which I have dedicated myself receiving great satisfaction. I continue to enjoy myself and I always feel the excitement of getting on the podium or winning”, Giancarlo Fisichella told the Italian daily newspaper. The former F1 driver also looked back on his time with the Maranello team (you can read his statements here).

Then he added: “At 50 I struggle more than when I was 20. But physically I’m fine and mentally I feel like a boy. Once I turned pro, I hoped to stay in the sport for a long time as a driver and then in a managerial role, now with my partner Marco Cioci I manage an academy to help young emerging drivers. Which moments of the past do I most often think back with pleasure? I’ve had wonderful experiences. But, if I have to choose, I say the karting years. They were the most fun and carefree. After racing on the track, we would go play foosball in the bar. Today I see ten or eleven year olds who spend hours looking at telemetry with the engineers … It’s all exaggerated and the costs have skyrocketed” – the Italian added.

About Flavio Briatore
“If Flavio Briatore is he the person to whom I owe the most from a sporting point of view? No, even if he was very important. First of all I would mention Giancarlo Minardi, the first to give me a car to make my debut in Formula 1. Flavio Briatore then took me to Benetton and later wanted me to return at Renault”.

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On the strongest teammate he’s had
“Fernando Alonso: fast, very prepared and he was never wrong. We had two good seasons together. In 2005 I started the championship by winning in Australia, but then technical problems and other circumstances slowed down my race for the title, and I had to sacrifice for the team”.

About the best driver ever
“Michael Schumacher. Unfortunately I’ve never raced in the same team with him, it would have been useful to see his telemetry, but we shared so many great moments at races and with the Drivers’ national football team. Sometimes he would get out of the car or finish a football match and he didn’t even seem to have sweated”.