Terruzzi: “When Michael Schumacher learned about Cereda’s cancer, he kept calling him until he died”
Behind the relentless driver who won seven Formula 1 World Championships and achieved 91 Grand Prix victories, there was also another side rarely seen. This perspective was brought back into focus by Giorgio Terruzzi, who appeared on Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast The BSMT, where he chose to speak not only about the champion, but about the human being Michael Schumacher.
The most powerful part of the interview focuses on Pepi Cereda, a Mediaset journalist and longtime colleague of Terruzzi in the Formula 1 paddock. Cereda often followed Schumacher closely, and as Terruzzi recalled, a professional relationship gradually developed between them race after race.
When Cereda fell seriously ill and stopped attending Grands Prix, the then Ferrari driver immediately noticed his absence and asked for explanations.
After learning that Cereda had been diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable cancer, the German driver did not limit himself to a formal gesture of sympathy. His reaction, revealed by Terruzzi, was immediate and direct:
“Give me his phone number,” he said to the veteran Italian motorsport journalist.
But Schumacher did not stop at a single call. From that moment on, as Terruzzi recounts, the German began calling him regularly at home, simply to keep him company and stay close while the illness progressed relentlessly.
Michael Schumacher called him every week, three times a week, until he passed away. This detail is the one that stands out the most, because it reveals the deeply human weight of a gesture that was anything but obvious, especially during a demanding racing season when the driver was already at the center of the Formula 1 world.
At that time, Schumacher was heading toward his fourth world title in Formula 1, the second consecutive championship with Ferrari. Terruzzi explains that this connection was never interrupted:
“Michael wanted to know, he asked for updates, he kept himself informed, he truly connected with another man’s suffering,” Terruzzi said.
Not the cold champion, not the figure often described as distant or detached, but a person capable of pausing in front of someone’s suffering and genuinely being present. For Giorgio Terruzzi, this episode alone is enough to reveal a side of Michael Schumacher that was rarely visible on television.
It is also why, years later, the story continues to resurface whenever people try to go beyond the sporting legend and explore the more hidden side of Michael Schumacher.
In collective memory, he remains the extraordinary driver who defined an era, particularly with Ferrari in the early 2000s, dominating Formula 1 and becoming one of the most successful drivers of all time.
But Terruzzi’s recollection points elsewhere: to a man who, in the middle of his peak success, found time for phone calls that had nothing to do with racing—and everything to do with human connection.
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