Strumming away my thoughts

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

currently reading: Team Schumacher: the men who painted F1 red again

this book is certainly ain't not for everyone to read. if you aren't a F1 fan, Schumi fan, it wouldn't interest you in the first place.
anyway, this book isn't about michael schumacher alone. Team Schumacher. so, other than michael, it mentions about ross brawn, jean todt, rory bryne, willi weber and etc who are part of team schumacher. i have yet to finish the book, coz i'm taking my own sweet time to read..
it's interesting to read about each of their lives. note: interesting but not inspiring. coz the times are different. as what ross brawn and rory bryne said, if their resumes were given to Ferrari now, they had no chance at all. so, the methods they use to become what they are now are not feasible for us.

i am fascinated by all the stories i read from the book, of course most fascinated by michael's story of coz. but i am amazed also by a chapter in the book which mentions about Enzo Ferrari - creator of Ferrari who passed away in 1988. i must say, some of his words made me scratch my head, coz my language skills are not up to the standard aka i dun understand.

"We live in a vast prison, like Kafka's. The world is penitentiary, and we are the inmates caught in an instinctive egotism, we have to depend on our own force and nothing else. Whatever we pretend, we value others not for the good they can do us, but for the evil they might. The man who might kill us receives our full attention. He requires it, for we live in a cruel world where violence has taken the place of reason, a world where the only positive element is fear, the chief instrument of power."

"Suicide is an act of courage. No man who takes a journey into the unknown is cowardly or vile. A man is nothing until he is dead. It is death that puts a stamp on his personality. Death has led me to constant self-examination, but I know life is an illusion, mainly the illusion that we are something. So when people talk about my fame, I know better than to be taken in by it. I am a man who has pursued an adventure. But it is probably an error to say who I am; if I am unable to see the defects in the machines I build, how can someone else judge me?"

"The modern world creates idols, which is cruel, when the intent is then to destroy them."

shall end this entry with words from the others...talking about michael's passion for racing when he's young and the active dad/husband michael is.

"I just could not continue if I did not have a sponsor. At that time he was in a good business, and he said, 'Ok, I will do it, and the only thing I want to have is your trophies.' So I said, 'That's fine for me - I can drive and you get the trophies..." -michael talking about Jurgen Dilk (i guess without Jurgen, there might not be michael in F1)

"He was so small then, just a little boy. He weighed less than 50 kilos - but he drove the karts so fast! He was interested only in them. He would go to school, he had some friends, some girlfriends too, and he would go to the cinema or play football, or sometimes go to a party, but most of his time he was at the kart track or he was training. That was his life." -Udo Irnich who grew up with michael at the Kerpen kart track

"Michael was leading. Then on the second lap, he knew he had a problem. He put his hand on the engine, where he felt he had a carburettor problem. He left his hand there for eighteen laps, driving with one hand on the wheel. He won the race. Afterwards he told me what was wrong: apparently there were two small screws loose on the fixing of the carburettor. That victory helped him win the German championship, when he was about fifteen or sixteen, I think." -Jurgen Dilk recalls the German championship for juniors, one of the many kart events he went with michael

"Michael is such a family man. One of the reasons why I love him is the way he is with our children. He always has time for them and it is wonderful to see how much he enjoys it. He is never happier than when he is playing around with Gina and Mick. He is always thinking of things to do with them: climbing, trampolining, playing around - those sort of things rather than singing or reading with them. That's where I come in. Michael is the more active one. He can hardly sit still. We never spend the day on the sofa together or simply hanging around. Never. He is incapable of it. Obviously, we sometimes watch a film together, but afterwards we get on with things again. He is unstoppable. He always has o do things, and always he finds something. he has a go a t everything. And, above all, he can do everything." -Corinna on michael

strummed at Wednesday, September 27, 2006