Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 1996-2006

“When you are part of a community for fourteen years it inevitably has an effect on you. I will always have a part of Ferrari inside me; a part of my heart will always be red. The Scuderia has a really special way of going about its business and it is quite right to speak of itself as a family – a family that I have long felt part of. The time I spent with Ferrari was wonderful, I made friends and had experiences that I would not want to be without. Concepts that I had never contemplated before my time at Ferrari came to life for me there: legend, culture and history. All of that meant nothing to me before I joined the team; I had never concerned myself with it or even known about it. Once I experienced at first hand the significance that Ferrari has for Italy and the tifosi, only then did I grasp that these concepts were well justified. That they originate in a passion for engines and cars, both among those who build them, as well as among those who admire them. I am certainly not a man prone to lyrical expressions, but I now fully understand this passion – my greatest passion is racing, and in that we, myself and Ferrari, are very much the same.“

Source: Ferrari S.p.A.