Willi Weber hits back at Jean Todt on Schumacher

Former Michael Schumacher manager Willi Weber said he was “speechless” after ex-Ferrari boss Jean Todt said Schumacher deliberately caused the 1997 Jerez collision and the 2006 Monaco qualifying stoppage, and Weber accused Todt of choosing the wrong moment to revisit them because of Schumacher’s “difficult situation.”

Todt, the former Ferrari team boss and later FIA president, acknowledged that Schumacher’s moves against Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997 and at Rascasse in Monaco qualifying in 2006 were intentional, a significant break from the line Ferrari had defended at the time.

Responding to Kölner Express, Weber said: “I am speechless. Why would he say something like that? And especially in Michael’s difficult situation.” He rejected any suggestion of malice from Schumacher, adding that anyone who knew him would know “there was no malicious intent behind it.”

Weber defended the Jerez incident as part of a world title fight. He described it as “a difficult but necessary maneuver to defend his position and therefore also the potential title,” and argued that Formula 1 had seen far more aggressive moves in championship battles, pointing to Ayrton Senna against Alain Prost.

On the 2006 Monaco qualifying controversy, when Schumacher stopped his car at Rascasse and brought out yellow flags as Fernando Alonso was trying to improve his time, Weber insisted it should be seen as an error rather than a deliberate act. “Where would we be if even a seven-time world champion like Michael was not allowed to make a mistake?” he said.

Weber also questioned why Todt had chosen to reopen the issue now. He said the incidents happened long ago and had already been thoroughly analyzed, before asking: “Is he trying to absolve himself of something retroactively?”

He said he no longer has any contact with Todt and ended that relationship after Schumacher’s 2013 accident because it would only remind him of “Michael’s sad fate,” a sign that Todt’s remarks have reopened a sensitive divide around two of the defining controversies of Schumacher’s career.