Michael Schumacher and the'last F1 podium: how the Valencia circuit looks today

For a Formula 1 fan, it is always a blow to the heart to see a track that has hosted more or less historic races in the past in a state of disrepair. Especially if it is a circuit that hosted one of the last exploits of Michael Schumacher’s career in the Circus. To be precise: the third place finish that in 2012 set his total of podiums won at 155. Yet that is precisely the bitter fate of the Valencia Street Circuit, which that very year hosted the last rainbow round of an F1 championship and has since turned into a veritable “ghost track”. Capable of creating no small amount of melancholy.

Marco Enzo Venturini

Just drive along its roads nowadays. Curves and straights of Valencia’s street circuit, which for five years were the scene of challenges between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg, as well as by the aforementioned Michael Schumacher, are now silent and desolate. A few faded prints of sponsors and signs from the era can still be discerned, while the asphalt is now cracked and the curbs host vegetation that has spontaneously grown since that distant 2012. And centuries seem to have passed since that 2007 when, after the splendors of the America’s Cup, Formula 1 decided to assign the Grand Prix d’Europe to this track that seemed futuristic.

It was so as early as 2008, when Felipe Massa won in a Ferrari the first Grand Prix that Formula 1 ran in Valencia. And on the one hand the public loved the fact that the single-seaters also had to cross the movable bridge designed by archistar Santiago Calatrava in a curve that was spectacular to watch on TV. On the other, the drivers themselves soon complained about the circuit&#8217s lack of safety, particularly poor grip. Controversy that accompanied the Iberian track until the aforementioned 2012. Memorable race for fans of the Cavallino, with Alonso first and two historical friends of Maranello completing the podium (Raikkonen second and Schumacher, as mentioned, third). But marked by accidents, suspensions and controversy.

That was the swan song of the Valencia Street Circuit, which from 2014 was to alternate with Montmeló to host the Spanish Grand Prix. For financial reasons, however, nothing came of it. And, unlike other tracks that hosted other categories after bidding farewell to Formula 1, no one returned to race in official championships on a track that went from ultra-modern to obsolete within months.

Today, there are no signs of possible new life for the Valencia street circuit, which, on the contrary, has also been partially the victim of looting and vandalism by the “usual unknown”. The disrespect of which is even more disheartening thinking that it was here that Michael Schumacher had the opportunity to greet the world for the ’last time from a podium. An isolated spark in his bitter three years in Mercedes, net of a pole position in Monte Carlo thwarted by disqualification. And seeing its abandoned and partly destroyed roads in the meantime represents an image as powerful as it is heartbreaking about the passing of time.