Michael Schumacher's persona behind the scenes at Formula 1 teams was "completely different" to his public persona, according to former colleague James Vowles. The seven-time F1 World Champion made a surprise return in 2010 with Mercedes, after they bought out the Brawn GP team following their title success in 2009. At the time Ross Brawn was still the Team Principal, who had worked with Schumacher during his days at Ferrari. Vowles was at the team as their Chief Strategist, who said that he had an "aura and presence" that was different to how he projected himself to the public. "Michael was this incredible individual. He had an aura and a presence with him as well, completely different to what you see externally," said Vowles to the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Schumacher knew everyones birthdays and looked after individuals
Recalling his time working with Schumacher, Vowles says he would "bring the team close together" and would know each of their birthdays. "Within the team he was there to help us, help the team move forward. He brought the team close together. He knew everyone's birthdays, he sent flowers to respective partners and really looked after individuals in a great way," said Vowles. "What it meant is the team were really pushing for him to be successful and that wasn't through any other mechanism than him being himself." Vowles also claims that both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom went on to title success with the team, learned a lot from his work ethic. "He also knew his performance was perhaps not quite at the same level, but he made up for it in terms of the amount of work and dedication he put in. From that, Nico learned a lot and conversely, Lewis learned a lot from Nico."
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