The attacks and the Zanardi drama
L’September 11, 2001 the world was experiencing one of the darkest pages of its recent history: i tragic terrorist attacks at the Twin Towers in New York and at the Pentagon, together with the failed attempt to bring down a fourth plane on the White House, caused 2977 civilian victims and threw the entire planet into a state of panic. Just five days after the tragedy, on September 16, 2001, the However, Formula 1 should have been on the scene for the third to last round of that season, scheduled on the Monza circuit. What made the situation of that Italian Grand Prix even more surreal and burdensome was the drama that struck Alex Zanardi, involved on 15 September on the Lausitzring circuit in Germany, during the Indy championship race, in the accident that would have forced to have his legs amputated.
Schumacher’s doubts
In that unsustainable atmosphere for many, for example Michael Schumacher suffered the most discomfort when he was on the track, who a few weeks earlier, in Hungary, had arithmetically won his fourth career world title, the second consecutive at the wheel of Ferrari. The German, as the chronicles of the time also tell, was fought over for a long time possibility of not even taking part in the event, leaving his Ferrari #1 in the hands of the historic Maranello test driver Luca Badoer. “It seemed like a bad sign to me to drive in Monza after what had happened. I was very reluctant, but then I decided to get on the track even though my heart wasn’t at peace. I was there in the car but in reality I was somewhere else“, the Kaiser would tell the Italian media years later.
Many fans remember that weekend Ferrari drivers wearing immaculate red overallsdevoid of any sponsor, and similarly one F2001 without brands and with the nose painted entirely black, as a sign of mourning. Schumacher, on Sunday, also became the spokesperson for a rather controversial initiative, which then fell on deaf ears: the champion from Kerpen proposed to his colleagues a soft start to the race, without overtaking, to avoid adding potential risks to an already rather complex weekend to manage on an emotional level. It should not be forgotten that on the opening lap of the previous year’s race, in Monza itself, firefighter Paolo Gislimberti lost his life following an accident at the Variante della Roggia.
Villeneuve’s response
The proposal to freeze positions was met with very mixed opinions within the grid and was ultimately not accepted. Among the most critical were Jacques Villeneuvehistorical antagonist of Schumacher in those years, after the title won against the German in 1997: “Then every start of a Grand Prix should not happen. Monaco is much more dangerous and there are other circuits more dangerous than this one – declared the Canadian to the British broadcaster ITV – we are race car drivers. We signed contracts at the beginning of the season and everyone was happy to be drivers and earn millions of dollars.”. His former boss at the time of Benetton, Flavio Briatore, also flatly opposed Schumacher. In fact, his team had implemented a highly effective assisted start system and the Piedmontese manager did not want to see that possible advantage wasted.
The race was ultimately won by Juan-Pablo Montoya’s Williams – a great friend of Zanardi – who that day achieved his first success in Formula 1. Michael Schumacher, at the end of one of the most anonymous races of his long career, was ‘only’ fourth at the finish line.
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