The home-town of Michael and Ralf Schumacher is to be demolished to make way for a development on a pit-mine.
The German town of Kerpen, which was created in 1975 after the merging of ten municipalities, is synonymous with one of the most famous names in motorsport. But the home-town of 7-times Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher and 6-time F1 race-winner brother Ralf is to be demolished.
Now said to be inhabited by no more than a dozen people, the town will be making way for an expansion of the Hambach surface mine. Also the location of the wedding between Michael and Corinna Schumacher [whom together share equestrian rider daughter Gina-Marie and son, current Mercedes Reserve Driver, Mick], the town is also the location of the kart track on which Michael and Ralf began racing. To support their sons’ progress, father Rolf ran the venue, with mother Elisabeth working in the canteen. The track will be spared from the demolition, but questions will now be raised as to whether the proposed modernisation of the track will now go ahead, which was planned in the hope of staging future kart races.
The track continued to host a plethora of karting races for many years, including one round of the World Karting Championship in 2001, in which Schumacher would return to compete against the then-current crop of talent. This would include future team-mate Nico Rosberg, Sir Lewis Hamilton and other future F1 drivers Geed van der Garde and Vitanontio Liuzzi, who won the race. ‘Schumi’ would make other appearances at the circuit over the years, with a trophy presentation to another budding racing driver by the name of Sebastian Vettel. The 4-times World Champion – now close friends with Schumacher Jnr – also appeared with his boyhood idol in 2011 in a race to commemorate the circuit’s 50th anniversary.
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