The Athletic

Formula One seemed to be all about the Schumacher brothers in the summer of 2001.

Michael was taking control of the world championship fight in a commanding first title defence with Ferrari,

while Ralph was hitting his stride at Williams, even managing to beat Big Brother in that year's Canadian Grand Prix.

So when they arrived on home soil at the Nureberg Ring, with Ralph having just signed a new contract extension at Williams,

then shared the front row together in qualifying,

the Schumackers were the talk of the F1 paddock, with everyone expecting a head-to-head battle

on the Sunday. In the end, it didn't quite play out that way. Ralph was put on high alert

by a classic start chop from Michael when the lights went out, and their nose to tail scrap came

to a premature end when Ralph was penalised for crossing the white line at the pit exit, a

transgression that Ferrari were believed to have flagged up to the FIA. So joining me, Glenn

Freeman, to talk quite a bit about the Schumackers, but also about everything else that was going

on in F1 during

the summer of 2001 on Matt Beer and Ed Straw. Matt, we'll come to you first. When you think

of the 2001 European Grand Prix at a Nurebergring, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Okay, confession time. When you asked me to be on this episode, the first thing that

came to my mind was, oh yeah, that great no-burgering race where Montoya goes around the outside

of Schumacher and Schumacher spins, then Ferrari gets moaning about it. And then I realized about three

hours later, that was the 2003 European Grand Prix. So it was my first thought, but it was for the

wrong race. But it is a Montoya. When did you work out? You had it wrong? It was my first thought, but it was for the wrong race. But it is a Montoya. When did you work out?

You had it wrong?

It was quite quickly afterwards, actually.

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