Michael Schumacher insider disputes claim made in new Netflix 'Birth of a Legend' documentary

A friend and former colleague of Michael Schumacher has disputed a suggestion made in a new Netflix documentary profiling the seven-time world champion about Ayrton Senna.

The new documentary, titled 'Schumacher '94 - The Birth of a Legend', focuses on the entirety of the 1994 season, in which Schumacher won his first Formula 1 Drivers' Championship with Benetton.

It was also the season in which the legendary Senna was killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix. The Brazilian hit the concrete wall at the high-speed Tamburello corner, with an Italian supreme court concluding some years later that the crash had been caused by a steering column failure on his Williams car.

The documentary goes into some detail on what, at the time of Senna's death, had been an emerging on-track rivalry with Schumacher, with both drivers having been expected to fight for the 1994 championship despite Senna and Williams having a poor start to the season.

But Richard Hopkins, who was a mechanic at McLaren and developed a friendship with Schumacher, believes that one suggestion made in the documentary would have been slightly different in reality.

Michael Schumacher insider disputes Netflix documentary claim about Ayrton Senna relationship

The documentary covers Schumacher's reaction to the death of Senna on May 1, 1994, with his manager Willi Weber describing him as "completely distraught" after the race.

"We were actually crying in the kitchen," Benetton hospitality staff member Di Spires says. "He said: 'I don't want to do this any more'. I can remember him saying that. Whether he can remember saying it, I don't know. But he said: 'I don't want to do this. Why? Why did that happen to Ayrton?' He was beside himself."

Ayrton Senna was killed in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix (Image: Getty)

Speaking to SPORTbible via iPredicta, Hopkins picked up on how the documentary suggested there was a "feeling, perhaps" that Schumacher would not be welcome at Senna's funeral - but he believes that would not have been the case.

"Did he see Ayrton as an idol? Yes," Hopkins stated. "Did he want to prove to everybody that he was better than him? Yes. Is it a crying shame that we didn't see a 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 season with Schumacher and Ayrton battling? An absolute crying shame.

"I think it was correct in the way that I think Michael struggled to manage his own emotions. And I think that manifested itself in many ways.

"I think that the comment made in the documentary that Michael chose not to go to Ayrton's funeral... but would he have been welcome? I think absolutely he would have been welcome. Yes there was rivalry, but there wasn't that degree of dislike about each other. I don't think that was quite right."

The full quote on the documentary is as follows: "Michael chose not to attend Ayrton's funeral. Some drivers did, some drivers didn't. There was a feeling, perhaps, that he wouldn't be welcome. But I don't know whether that was true or not. I think Michael's decision not to go also speaks to this side of him, that he understands he has emotions in him that he can't necessarily always control. He's a very sensitive person, but he had to build a protective hard shell around himself. And Michael's overriding feeling was that he must not ever allow his weaknesses to be seen."

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Richard Hopkins: Michael Schumacher had 'everything go on that year'

Hopkins adds that, during his time in Formula 1, he never saw another driver that had 'been through' as much as Schumacher did during the 1994 season.

"He got disqualified from the British Grand Prix, he was also disqualified from Spa, then a two-race ban," he recalls. "The Senna accident. He had everything going on that year.

"He was still a young guy, still relatively new to Formula One. He had a lot to manage that year. Yes, he won the championship. Yes, he won lots of Grands Prix. Yes, he did something naughty at the Australian Grand Prix [Schumacher crashed into title rival Damon Hill, which forced the latter to retire and secured him the championship]. But blooming heck, it was only fair that they made a documentary about that season.

“We thankfully haven't seen another season like it. But we haven't seen another season like it where drivers have been through the wringer quite like that.”

"There was a lot of commentary around, certainly from Corinna, how Michael changed after San Marino," Hopkins continues. "And we all changed after San Marino. San Marino was significant for anybody that worked in Formula One, or watched Formula One for that matter. And that probably was the change.

"It wasn't like we were best mates. But certainly our relationship... things did change. And I think it was probably around that San Marino period where we probably all got a bit more serious about it. Michael got a bit more serious about it as well. Probably all drivers did, because up until that point, drivers probably thought they were indestructible and immortal. They could have accidents and all walk away from them. And then San Marino proved everybody wrong."