F1 icon explains how his view of Michael Schumacher changed

Michael Schumacher celebrates victory at the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

F1 icon explains how his view of Michael Schumacher changed

Jock Clear worked with Schumacher at Mercedes in the 2010s

By Chris Deeley.

Monday 27 April 2026 19:00

Jock Clear has revealed how his perception of Michael Schumacher shifted dramatically after working closely with the seven-time world champion.

Clear, who spent time with both Mercedes and Williams, collaborated with Schumacher during the German’s return to F1 in the early 2010s.

Initially assigned to Nico Rosberg, the British engineer later moved across the garage to work with Schumacher after the first season, once it became clear the original partnership wasn’t the right fit.

Speaking to Peter Windsor, Clear admitted that he had gone into the partnership with a pretty low opinion of Schumacher after his season-ending crashes into his title rivals in both 1994 and '97, the latter into Jacques Villeneuve, who had Clear as his race engineer at the time.

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The '94 crash into Damon Hill, with his Benetton about to be retired from the race with a broken suspension, infamously secured Schumacher's first title. Things worked out differently in '97, with Schumacher bouncing off the side of Villeneuve's Williams and into the gravel as he tried desperately to keep his one-point championship lead.

As it was, he retired on the spot and the Canadian driver went on to cruise home in third place to lift the trophy – and to add insult to injury, Schumacher was stripped of his second place in the championship over the incident.

Schumacher engineer: He is a lovely, lovely human being

He explained: “Michael immediately said ‘well if Nico doesn’t want him as his race engineer, I’ll have him. So I crossed the table and went to the other side, we brought Bono on as a race engineer, and Ross said ‘mentor Bono and get him up to speed as a race engineer and Michael likes the way you work so see how it goes’.

“And we got on famously, we really did, it was a great triumvirate for those couple of years with myself and Bono and Michael. It was a real eye opener to see how a seven-time world champion goes about their business and he just knew how to deal with people.

“So going from not having a great deal of respect 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, a 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.”

F1 Mercedes Michael Schumacher Jock Clear