‘Massa told me about Michael Schumacher’s accident – I thought he’d broke a leg’
December 29, 2013 lingers in the mind of former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley and the rest of the F1 world.
At the time, he'd recently departed the Italian team and was on his way to Williams, to become their head of vehicle performance. On what appeared to be a mundane day, he looked down at his phone and saw Felipe Massa, whom he was designated race engineer to between 2006 and 2013 at Ferrari, was calling him.
Smedley, 49, spent nine years at Ferrari, first as an engineer in the test team, before being given the responsibility of working so closely with Massa. What may have initially been a friendly phone call, became one he would never forget.
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Nowadays, Smedley is currently in the process of launching and building the Global Karting League, an ever-growing scheme providing much needed intelligence and financial support to other talented drivers aspiring to become the next Schumacher or Lewis Hamilton. As it has always been, his life is busy – very busy.
However, nearly 10 years after Schumacher hit his head on a rock while skiing in the French Alps, Smedley still remembers the day he first found out about the horrific fall.
“I was at home and where I heard it from was a phone call with Felipe Massa,” Smedley said in an exclusive interview with Daily Star Sport. “He said, ‘oh, Michael has had a skiing accident’. I said, ‘oh okay, has he hurt himself?’ He replied, “oh, I don’t think so. I just heard he’s had a skiing accident’.
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“I just thought he kind of broke his leg or something like that. When the news started to filter through, that it was much more serious than that, all we could do, and can do now, is continue to hope and pray for him.”
With the Schumacher family deciding to keep the seven-time F1 champion’s health and recovery private, the sporting world is still in the dark as to what condition he is currently in. But instead of contemplating how Schumacher is currently doing, Smedley instead chooses to look back on the good times he had with him.
“As an ex-colleague, you can only look back with fondness,” Smedley added. “After such a long career in Formula One, you can look back on certain people that you have worked with. Michael was definitely one of my favourite colleagues that I ever worked with. I learned so much from him.
“He was really good fun. On the inside, he had a great deal of humility. He taught me a great deal about work ethic, I worked very closely with him, especially in the testing. He was always trying to find an edge, he was always open to new ideas. He always understood his position within a big organisation like Ferrari and never got beyond that as well – he never got beyond himself.”
Schumacher hit his head on a rock when he was skiing in Meribel, located in the French Alps. Initially, then director of the Meribel resort Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte said Schumacher was "a little shaken but conscious" after the accident.
However, his condition took a turn for the worse when he was placed into a medically induced coma, before he was brought home in September 2014. The closest the sporting world has come to a detailed update on his health was in the 2021 Netflix documentary 'Schumacher' when his wife Corinna said her husband is "different, but he's here."
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