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Michael Schumacher Had Insomnia And Feared For His Life After Death Of Ayrton Senna

Michael Schumacher Had Insomnia And Feared For His Life After Death Of Ayrton Senna

He spoke about the impact the death had on him in a recently unearthed interview

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Michael Schumacher struggled to sleep and doubted he would race again without feeling worried following the 1994 death of Ayrton Senna.

Schumacher was behind Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix when the 34-year-old Brazilian crashed his car and tragically died.

Senna's death at such a young age sent shock waves through the sport - and had a devastating impact on Schumacher.

Ayrton Senna.
PA

Netflix's Schumacher documentary features an unearthed interview with the former world champion in which he opened up about the effect the death had on him.

In the footage, Schumacher says: "It was two hours after the race where [engineering director] Mr [Tom] Walkinshaw came up to me after the race and said, 'it's looking very bad'.

"I said, 'no he's in a coma but a coma doesn't mean anything bad'.

"He said, 'no it doesn't look too good'.

"And then someone came to me later and said, 'he's dead'.

"I still didn't believe he'd be dead, I couldn't think of that. That point I was like, 'no, he's going to be the champion, he maybe misses one or two races and then comes back again'.

Schumacher and other racing drivers hold a minute's silence for Senna.
PA

"The worst was really the two weeks after this as I had to accept he was dead."

Schumacher was then asked whether it was 'easy to drive' following the incident, and replied: "Silverstone, I went there [afterwards] and suddenly you see things with different eyes.

"I went through Silverstone in a road car and just thought, 'this is a point you could be dead, this is another point you could be dead'.

"I thought, 'crazy, you always raced here but there are so many points you can crash and you can be immediately dead' - that was the only thing I was thinking of.

PA

"I didn't know what was going to be the situation if I was going to be in the race car.

"I wasn't sure can I drive without thinking that or I'm going to drive now always thinking, 'now you can be dead here, if you go off here it's going to be bad' and that was something very strange.

"I wake up during the night and I'd sleep maybe three hours a night, things like this."

Schumacher is streaming on Netflix now.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: SPORT, TV and Film, Netflix