Former Red Bull star Jaime Alguersuari has opened up about what it was like racing against Michael Schumacher.
Alguersuari battled with Schumacher following the F1 legend's return to the sport with Mercedes in 2010. The pair spent two years racing each other, predominantly in the midfield, before Alguersuari lost his seat with Toro Rosso at the end of the 2011 season.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Sport, Alguersuari revealed what it was like facing Schumacher on the track - and what words of advice the Ferrari legend gave the Spaniard while he was making his way in F1.
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"For me, Michael was like an idol and a hero," Alguersuari told us over Zoom, before the start of the F1 season a few months ago.
"He was like Tiger Woods. Watching him dominate the sport while I’m going up step by step through the different levels, and then suddenly he comes back and I'm racing against him!
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"You get to know him and you see the way he works, trains, interacts with the people and the media. His determination and belief influences you."
Despite Alguersuari and Schumacher's incomparable levels of experience at the time, the pair enjoyed their fair share of battles on track, with the former Toro Rosso man giving the German as good as he got.
"Talking with him in 2010 from pre-season testing and the way he trained, it was very interesting," Alguersuari adds. "He had a very good relationship with Franz Tost, so we got to spend some time together.
"I remember the first pre-season test in Jerez, I was actually faster than him. You never know what the situation is as it’s pre-season testing but that was kind of like ‘ok, here we go, we’re two or three tenths faster than you and we’re going to be racing'."
It was during pre-season testing in Jerez that Schumacher relayed some words of wisdom to Alguersuari - at that stage still in his early-20s.
"He gave me one piece of advice off the track. He told me to as listen to as many people as I could, and to absorb what I found interesting.
"We were having lunch in Jerez and he had these comments that he used to share with young people. He was always very kind."
The Schumachers of the sporting world don't come along very often. And as Alguersuari reveals, stars like the German legend don't reach the top without that that extra edge.
"I saw some things from Michael that I wasn’t always a fan of," he says. "But I understand he was something else as he took things super seriously and professionally. He had a very different and unique character."
Alguersuari faced Schumacher for the first time on his F1 comeback at the 2010 Australian Grand Prix. The pair enjoyed a memorable battle that still makes Alguersuari smile, even now.
"The first race in Australia, we didn’t have a good car and neither did they, but I kept him behind me for 55 laps with old tyres before he overtook me at the end of the race."
Alguersuari finished just two seconds behind Schumacher at Albert Park, a symptom of what was to come during a frustrating 2010 season for the Spaniard, who regularly found himself on the cusp of the top ten.
But it didn't take long for the 33-year-old, who is now a DJ and music producer, to start treating the Ferrari legend as just another competitor, rather than his hero.
"You lose a little bit of the hero-ness that you first have when you meet him," he says. "That gives you extra belief and self trust in yourself to try and do things that you maybe think you are not capable of."
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