Michael Schumacher’s Wildest Overtake? A Taxi Ride to the Airport

Michael Schumacher built his reputation on speed, precision, and a fearless approach to overtaking.

But in late December 2007, long after his seven Formula 1 titles were secured, he pulled off a move that had nothing to do with a GP, and everything to do with making it to an airport on time. The twist? He wasn’t in a Ferrari, or even his own car. He was in a taxi. And not just sitting in the back… he was the one driving it.

A winter trip turns into a race against time

The day started innocently enough. Schumacher was in the Bavarian countryside, having just collected a new Australian Shepherd puppy for his family.

The trip took him to Gehülz, a small village about 30 kilometers from the Coburg aerodrome, where a private plane was waiting.

But somewhere along the way back, the clock became the enemy. His family realized they were cutting it far too close. Missing the flight wasn’t an option. They hailed a taxi, driven by a man named Tuncer Yilmaz — and piled in. The plan was simple: let the cabbie handle it and hope for the best.

Except Schumacher wasn’t the sort of man to leave “hoping for the best” in someone else’s hands.

“Mind If I take the wheel?”

Schumacher asked to drive the car, so he asked when they already were between the village and the Airport.

So it is not something that happens to any Taxi driver, to find himself in the passenger seat of his own car, and it is even rarer when the man taking over the wheel is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in history.

The taxi driver later admited that he did not hesitate.

Full throttle… in a Diesel taxi

From the moment Schumacher slipped behind the wheel, the roads became his own little time trial, also the Taxi driver Yilmaz recalled that he took corners ‘at full throttle’ and overtook slower cars in places most drivers wouldn’t dare.

It was not reckless, Michael knew exactly what he was doing, but it was certainly fast.

Imagine the scene, the snow-dusted German countryside blurring past, a taxi meter ticking away in the dashboard and one of the motorsport’s legens calmly carving through traffic as if the Autobahn were his personal pit lane.

The fare, the tip, and the Story of a lifetime

By the time they screeched into the airport, the family was on time and the driver was grinning from ear to ear. The fare came to about €60, but Schumacher, perhaps grateful for the “loan” of the car, handed over around €160 in total, including a very generous tip.

For Yilmaz, the money wasn’t the real treasure. In interviews, he said the experience was “better than winning the lottery”. He’d just been driven to the airport by a man who’d spent a career outpacing Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, and Fernando Alonso, only this time, the race was against a departure gate.

The press goes wild

The story hit the news quickly. Reuters dubbed him “Germany’s fastest taxi driver.” ABC News and ESPN ran pieces quoting Yilmaz’s disbelief.

Motorsport forums lit up with fans joking about how they’d gladly miss a flight if it meant Schumacher could drive them somewhere.

In a way, it became a perfect little Schumacher anecdote: competitive spirit meets precision driving, applied to something as ordinary as an airport transfer.

It proved that for Schumacher, driving wasn’t just a job — it was instinct.

Why this story sticks

F1 fans love this tale because it’s so unfiltered. There’s no PR polish, no scripted TV segment. It’s just Schumacher being Schumacher, impatient with delays, confident in his skills, and utterly unwilling to settle for “slow.”

It’s also a reminder that the thrill of speed doesn’t fade when the trophies are on the shelf. Even in retirement, Schumacher found ways to turn the mundane into the memorable.

For Tuncer Yilmaz, it was a one-off fare. For the rest of us, it’s a story that still makes the rounds almost two decades later.

Fun Fact:

The puppy Schumacher picked up that day, an Australian Shepherd named Ed, ended up appearing in family photos for years. So somewhere in Germany, there’s a dog that unwittingly set the stage for one of the most charming chapters in Schumacher lore.