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My very earliest driving memory is a painful one. I was four-and-a-half, driving a go-kart my dad built, doing about 40-50kph on the pavement. Somehow I lost focus for a second and there was suddenly this lamppost there – I swear to you it wasn’t there before – and I just hit it. After that, we decided to go to a proper circuit with run-off areas and no lampposts and no people walking on pavements.

People make the mistake of thinking that we race because we love adrenaline. When you battle wheel-to-wheel, there is excitement, of course. But speed itself is not so important. We go down the straight at Monza at 350kph and it’s no big deal –I can do that with one hand. It becomes interesting when you have to break from 350kph and make the corner. That’s the moment where speed becomes a subject. When you’re going down the straight, time doesn’t pass; then in a corner, you are completing so many actions, time just flies by – it becomes automatism.

When you crash, it is true that everything goes in slow motion. You see that it’s happening and you say, OK, not much I can do about this now. But your life doesn’t flash before your eyes – even when my brakes failed at Silverstone in 1999 and I broke my leg in the crash. I did have those thoughts afterwards, however.

After 20 years in Formula 1, I have become a much nicer

Opposite, clockwise from top: Michael

schumacher, wearing the timepiece named

after him; tough times in 2012 in the Mercedes;

celebrating his third world championship, his first with Ferrari, in 2000

This page: Audemars piguet royal oak offshore

Michael schumacher, in rose gold

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My first passion was go-karting and I still do that. That won’t stop with retirement from F1 – it’s so easy for me to hop in and have fun for a weekend without committing to a whole season. So timing will always be important. QAudemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Michael Schumacher Edition, from £31,550 (for the 1,000 titanium versions; further, more limited editions are available – 500 in rose gold and 100 in platinum); audemarspiguet.com

As he retires from Formula 1, MICHAEL SCHUMACHER ref lects on the passage of time, offers sage advice to young drivers and contemplates a new career in watchmaking

Clocking out

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER burst into Formula 1, aged 22, at the 1991 Belgian GP as a replacement Jordan driver, qualifying an impressive seventh. Despite having three years off, 21 years later, he retires in possession of more than 30 records in F1, including most race wins and pole positions (both 68) and most consecutive drivers’ championships (five – one more than Fangio)

After 20 years in F1, I have become much

more patient

with Audemars Piguet. I have other commercial partners, but other than building race cars, I have never shared a partnership as close as this and I’m looking forward to developing further.

I have had a passion for watches since I was a child and my grandfather gave me a couple of his. But it’s a sad story. I was so proud of them that I hid them away, but I hid them too well and, when we moved house, I couldn’t find them again. It still hurts now to think of it.

I have known people from Audemars Piguet for many years socially, through Jean Todt (former boss of Scuderia Ferrari). And from that, realising we had shared values, it developed into working together. We wanted to achieve the effect that the watch is at first glance a Royal Oak Offshore and then, when you look closely, you realise, ah, that’s the Michael Schumacher edition. It has seven stars on the dial, two in blue for my world titles with Benetton and five in red for the championships in a Ferrari. You also see a chequered pattern to represent the flag; and the crown is something like a gear wheel. And because I am someone who wears my watch whatever I’m doing, even if I’m working on a go-kart, the bezel is made from extremely scratch-resistant cermet [ceramic and metal composite]. The only time I don’t wear a watch is when I am racing. A friend of mind, Jean Alesi, had an accident and in the impact, his watch actually broke his wrist.

about how much risk you want to take in relation to the reward. Some people have an approach that brings risk to themselves and others and, if the proportion is too big, you have problems. It is mainly young drivers with this problem and they’ll learn with experience, but even older drivers can make mistakes.

The moment I am most proud of in my career is the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix when we won the world championship. Ferrari had not won the driver’s title since 1979, so that is the most meaningful achievement. The teamwork involved in getting there, with my friends Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and others, was the most important aspect, so when we delivered in that moment, the emotions were huge.

I’ve had people ask me if I feel like time will stop for me after my last race in Formula 1. It will not. I have retired once before –I didn’t do that intending to come back – and I enjoyed the freedom, the time for my family and myself. The attraction of returning to try to help take Mercedes back to the top was that it was a mission and a timeframe that suited me. We failed, I have to say. That is just fact: we did not take it to the top. But in life you can’t always be successful in every area, and I’m still proud of what we did, looking at it overall. Now, I have a lot of opportunities but I will not think about them until after my final race. Although I can say one thing, as I have just launched a watch

person. No, I’m joking. What has changed is that I am much more patient. When you are young and inexperienced, sometimes you try to run through the wall. Now I prefer to open the door first. It’s a natural development. There has been much debate this season about young drivers at the start of Grands Prix. It’s all