Since it's his birthday, I thought I should write a little something about Michael.
Ever since I was a child, I've been obsessed with you. From that flash of scarlet red, doing everything to get your own way, annoying the Brits, doing things no-one else could do on a racetrack, I've been hooked. Both times that you left Formula 1, it has left a gaping hole to fill in my life. But for you to leave life itself would leave a void so large in so many people's lives, that their, and indeed my life, would never be the same again.
I always thought that one day, a long time into the future, I'd hear on the radio that you'd left this world, & I imagined the feelings of sadness I would have. And for that moment to have potentially been brought forward to just before you even turned 45, seems so hideously unfair not to myself, but to you, and your wonderful family. With the rumours of what had happened to you while skiing, it was like we were back on the track again, with a red flagged session, with no obvious explanation. My heart freezing at the thought it could be you, and you could be hurt. While it's no relief that you're in the situation that you are, to still have you with us at all is such a blessing. And you know what it gives you? It gives you a fighting chance.
And we all know you're a fighter. You didn't give up in Japan 2000. You didn't give up in Spain 1994. You didn't give up in Valencia 2012. You didn't even give up in Brazil 2006, your 'first' final race when everything went against you. And you're not going to give up now. If there is one thing that Michael Schumacher does not do, it is give up.
And so, today, I am so grateful to still be able to wish you a happy 45th birthday. However bad the circumstances may be.
I've seen so many people, in my own life and on social media, lambaste, curse, and despise you when you were racing.
But nobody thinks that now. Everyone just wants you back to how you were. And when you do wake up, you'll find a world more in love with you than ever before.
