(L to R): Michael Schumacher (GER) Ferrari with Zinedine Zidane (FRA) Retired Football Player and a Ferrari FXX. Formula One World Championship, Rd 8, French Grand Prix, Qualifying Day, Magny-Cours, France, Saturday 30 June 2007.
Two retired sport icons – seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and soccer legend Zinedine Zidane – in one car. That alone would make headlines.
Add in the fact that the vehicle – a Ferrari FXX – was Schumacher’s personal car (one of only 30 built), that it was Zidane’s track baptism and that the route was a fast lap of Magny-Cours – and you are guaranteed a media frenzy.
That is exactly what happened at the French Grand Prix meeting on Saturday and there was a good cause behind the special track display: both Schumacher and Zidane were there to support the Institute for Cerebral and Medullar Disorders (ICM).
“The hotly-contested 2007 F1 world championship is very interesting for lovers of motorsport like myself,” said Zidane. “But I am here above all to support the ICM, the association whose aim is provide the necessary means to combat certain serious neurological diseases”
Getting out of the car, the Frenchman added: “Gee, that was quite an experience – and incredible, how late Michael was braking before beating the car around the curves! I would not want to try that on a normal road!”
And Schumacher, quite monosyllabic of late when confronted with the media, added: “Sport has given the both of us an immense amount – and this was a great occasion to give something back by raising the awareness for the research of the Institute for Cerebral and Medullar Disorders. And it was a personal pleasure!”