Ex-Mercedes chief declined Michael Schumacher F1 role, here’s why

Schumacher after the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

Ex-Mercedes chief declined Michael Schumacher F1 role, here’s why

Michael Schumacher's reputation proceeded him in F1

By Kerry Violet.

Friday 24 April 2026 17:00

A former Mercedes performance engineer has broken down exactly why he initially refused to work with Michael Schumacher during the twilight of the F1 icon's career.

Jock Clear was previously Lewis Hamilton's performance engineer at the Silver Arrows, and the Brit has enjoyed an impressive career in the pinnacle of motorsport for over 30 years.

With multiple decades of experience at the centre of the sport, Clear has had the privilege of working for giants of the sport, including Mercedes and Ferrari.

Article continues under video

Up until 2026, Clear was a driver coach for Ferrari star Charles Leclerc, but has now departed the Scuderia's ranks to enjoy a slower pace of life, although he still lives within touching distance of Maranello.

Having held senior roles at the Italian F1 team for over a decade, Clear became a stalwart of the sport, and even though he is best known for having a positive influence on champion drivers such as Hamilton and Jacques Villeneuve, he didn't always take such a favourable view of Schumacher.

Clear had reservations about Schumacher

"Just an absolute pleasure," Clear said about working with Schumacher at Mercedes. "And I knew Michael reasonably well because of our battles in '97 but we spoke to each other and we were enemies.

"And honestly I had a pretty poor opinion of him for a few years after that. What he did in ‘97, what he did in ‘94 don’t sit well with me. I’d have conversations with people and they’d say ‘yeah but anyone would do that in his situation'.

"Maybe he had a problem in that Ferrari in Jerez so it was his only chance to win was to take Jacques out. In '94, he knew he was going to get overtaken by Damon so he had to take him out.

"'Any driver who’s worth their salt would do the same', they’d say, and I’d argue ‘no they wouldn’t. Jacques wouldn’t have done it and the drivers I’ve known since, a lot of them wouldn't have done it.' Lewis wouldn’t have done it, for sure.

"And so I had a pretty poor view of his sportsmanship and when he came to Mercedes, Nico and Michael were coming (into the team) and Ross (Brawn) brought us into a meeting and said ‘I guess we need to sort out who’s going to race engineer who'."

Clear then shed light on how he initially turned down the role, straight up refusing to work with the seven-time champion based on his experience with the star in the past.

"I said ‘I’m not going to race engineer Michael that’s for sure'," Clear continued. "And so that decision was pretty easy, I had Nico [Rosberg] and Shov [Andrew Shovlin] had Michael."

How Schumacher charmed Mercedes chief

F1 journalist Windsor then interrupted Clear's explanation to highlight how his working relationship with Nico Rosberg was also hardly ideal, to which the ex-Mercedes star responded: "That's Right... we just didn't click."

"Nico and I just didn't understand each other at all, we just didn't have any synergy," he continued.

Little did he know, this was for the best, and after conversations with Mercedes' Ross Brawn, it was none other than Schumacher who, in Clear's words, piped up to suggest: "If Nico doesn't want him I'll have him."

As a result, Peter Bonnington (now known as Bono) joined the squad to be mentored by Clear, who partnered up with Schumacher for the 2011 and 2012 campaigns as his performance engineer.

"We got on famously we really did. It was a great triumph for those couple of years with myself and Bono and Michael... it was a real eye-opener to see how a seven-time champion goes about the business. He just knew how to deal with people."

Explaining his surprising switch in opinion towards the F1 legend, Clear added: "Going from not having a great deal of respect for him as a sporting player, that became completely irrelevant in the following years because I had a huge amount of respect for him as a man, as a human being. He is a lovely, lovely human being. He knows how to treat people. Huge amount of respect for people that do a good job for him and treat him well and he treats them well and that's how it should be."

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

View full biography

F1 Mercedes Jock Clear