planetf1.com

Here's an interesting read...they say $45M british pounds were donated, but most believe it to be much more than that.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motorsport/2750524/Instituto-Ayrton-Senna-Gone-but-not-forgotten.html

We'll never have any idea of what he donated before his untimely death....and I'm pretty sure that's just the way he'd want it

Another link: "The Story of Senna, Formula 1′s Humble Hero":
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/senna/

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‘Ayrton had taken pole and now Alain said to me: “where the f*** did he find that time? How the hell can he be that quick?” In the corner, Senna…he looked up and winked at me. Ayrton had a look in his eye that said, “I’ve done it.”
Jo Ramírez

On the topic of Schumacher, he's done a lot on a personal level for charities, and he shuns publicity about it. He's particularly focused on children.

There was the $10 million donation to the Tsunami appeal and he donates around that every year to UNESCO with most of it going to setting up schools and similar in underprivileged areas such as South America. There was indeed also the fact that he made sure the wife of the Marshall killed would be looked after, and there's a couple of other instances of that sort of thing.

Every year in Australia he used to visit Children's hospitals and he would specifically do it in such a way that the press didn't know, or try to, as one year he got severely peeved when the press got wind of it and camped at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne; after that he would generally visit hospitals interstate in the week leading up to the GP so there was less chance of it being noticed. And he didn't really do it as 'Michael Schumacher F1 driver' - some of the kids knew who he was (and some of the parents fell all over themselves), but for the most part he just went as a regular guy trying to cheer people up. He donated a lot of money to some of the hospitals to buy much needed equipment. AFAIK he does similar things like this in every country he visits for a GP.

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Formerly kai_

To be fair, he's also supposed to have the most money to donate of any athlete (except maybe Tiger Woods)...

Without being cynical though, he is obviously exceptionally generous, and deserves huge amounts of kudos for that. I seem to remember reading that his donation to the tsunami relief effort was bigger than that made by any COUNTRY.

Certainly in his first career, it seemed at odds with his "racing" persona, but Schumi Mk II seems like a relatively humble and likable guy.

I never thought I'd ever see the words "humble" and "Mansell" in the same sentence

No offence but I think you may be confusing humility with indifference. Not giving a crap about fame does not make one humble.

The Free Online Dictionary definition of humble:


Now with the best will in the world I wouldn't call Kimi meek, nor would I say he is deferential in any way. Independent, certainly. Self assured, yes. Carefree, perhaps. Humble, I don't think so.

Interesting that you mention the donation to the Tsunami appeal being bigger than any country. At the time it was bigger than the vast majorities of countries and entire sporting clubs and I recall reading an article that detailed that countries' donations went up substantially after he made his because he'd made them look bad. One case in point was a big country (can't recall who but I remember being shocked at the time) who had made a pitiful $1 million donation and after Schumi's donation they upped it to $20 million. And there was a British soccer club who upped theirs to match his. So it had a massive knock on effect.

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Formerly kai_

You're right about making people look stupid/ bad... US donated $50 Million, and right after it became public knowledge that an individual donated $10 Million, it went up to $100 Million. Same with a lot of other countries... but, you also have to consider their GDP each... most Asian, African and East-European countries weren't that well off, or are now for that matter.

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My Top 5 drivers of all times:
1) Prost/ Schumacher
3) Fangio
4) Lauda
5) Brabham

if you don't like it, too bad! There's a reason why it says "My Top 5"

I somehow doubt that any F1 driver is 'humble' - insofar as they have to have supreme confidence that they are the best!

Without this confidence, they are not going to go far in F1.

Never having met any of the drivers, Mika came across as the 'nicest' driver, during the time I've been watching F1. But then again, I heard somewhere (?) that he too could be annoyingly self-confident/arrogant - and let's face it, supreme self-confidence can come across as arrogance.

Its probably best to accept that all established F1 drivers are supremely confident, which means we are considering what? Being nice? Generous?

really? he sounded very 'humble' yesterday



http://english.gazzetta.it/Motor_sports ... 2443.shtml

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We are worse than animals, we hunger for the kill.
We put our faith in maniacs the triumph of the will,
We kill for money, wealth and lust, for this we should be damned.
We are disease upon the world, brotherhood of man.