Do Catholics, with their “special relationship” with death, make for faster and better racing drivers? Is it just a coincidence that most of the greatest racing champions have been Catholic, including Tazio Nuvolari (the Flying Mantuan) in the 1930s, Ayrton Senna (killed during the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1994) and Michael Schumacher, near fatally injured while skiing in 2013 (his son Mick is now signed with Haas in F1).
Michael Schumacher had an “emotional” audience with Pope John Paul II as part of the Ferrari team in which he said that the pope’s personal audience inspired his “motivation and success’. In 2016, Schumacher was visited at his home by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the confidant and private secretary of Benedict XVI and a close aide of Pope Francis. Senna once said of his vocation for motor racing: “I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence. If you have God on your side, everything becomes clear.”
