Idman.biz
Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has admitted that Michael Schumacher deliberately collided with Jacques Villeneuve in the decisive race of the 1997 World Championship in Jerez.
Idman.Biz reports that Todt called the move a mistake that cost the German driver the title.
"He deliberately hit him, but he did it clumsily. Michael is a fantastic boy, but every time he lost control of the car, he paid a heavy price. That's why it cost him the championship.
It was just emotion. Therefore, you should be very forgiving when judging someone's actions in the heat of a race. It's easy to say at the table 'you should have done this, 'you should have done that'. But you have to understand that in the heat of the situation, the brain reacts differently.
When he realised he might lose the championship because he was behind Villeneuve, he tried to solve the problem and made the wrong decision. He needed support. It was a bad move, unnecessary", Todt said on the High Performance podcast.
Todt also revealed that Schumacher deliberately stopped his car while qualifying for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, preventing Fernando Alonso from improving his time, and was sent to the back of the grid for it. According to the former Ferrari boss, that move also cost the German driver the championship.
Todt had previously defended Schumacher, claiming the move in Monaco was a driver error, not deliberate. Twenty years ago, he also denied the collision in Jerez was deliberate.
Schumacher was excluded from the 1997 championship, stripped of all his points and deprived of the right to finish second in the drivers' standings.
