Ralf Schumacher has become the most high-profile ex-Formula One driver to come out as gay.
The German announced his relationship with French business manager Etienne via Instagram on Monday.
Schumacher, the younger brother of seven-time F1 world champion Michael, drove in 180 races from 1997-2007 for Jordan, Williams and Toyota, winning on six occasions.
The 49-year-old posted a picture with his partner on holiday, captioned: “The most beautiful thing in life is when you have the right partner by your side with whom you can share everything.”
Schumacher becomes the fourth former F1 driver to come out, after Mike Beuttler (1971-73), Lella Lombardi (1974-76) and Mario de Araujo Cabral (1959-1964), who came out as bisexual aged 75 in 2009. The most high-profile driver to come out across all racing disciplines until now is three-time Le Mans champion Hurley Haywood in 2018.
Richard Morris, CEO of LGBTQ+ rights in motorsport movement Racing Pride, told i: “The reception to [Schumacher’s announcement] has been broadly very positive, which has been fantastic to see.
“It is really helpful when people who have a profile within the sport can be open about who they are because it encourages and inspires other people that they can be themselves as well.”
Racing Pride now work with five of the 10 F1 teams and have members across dozens of countries, but when they were founded in 2019, pro-LGBTQ+ messaging in the sport was virtually non-existent.
While three former drivers in the all-female W Series – Sarah Moore, Abbie Eaton and Jess Hawkins – have come out, alongside transgender driver Charlie Martin, F1 still has a lot of work to do before an active driver is likely to speak out.
“Those who have come out to date from Formula One or comparable series like Le Mans, have come out after retiring,” Morris explains.
“It’s helpful they can do that, but of course we want to get to a situation where everyone feels able to be themselves throughout their motorsport journey.
“That will need continuing cultural change. It will need the sport and the industry to be very clear about its position of including LGBTQ+ people. There are still barriers.”
Homosexuality is still illegal in three countries Formula 1 races in – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – while same-sex marriage is illegal in Hungary, among other stringent anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Former driver Nelson Piquet was forced to pay £780,000 in damages after making racist and homophobic remarks about Lewis Hamilton in 2023, while Aston Martin had to sanction agency workers over homophobic abuse of a colleague in 2022.
As Morris says: “This doesn’t mean job done.
“We need to make sure we have this cultural shift towards acceptance, understanding, toleration, but we’re also backing that up with the real internal work that makes sure that we’re not just saying we want to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ people – we actually are.
“I would love to see more work going on across the sport as a whole. Last year, Motorsport UK became the first motorsport national governing body in the world to have a trans inclusion policy. Amazing.
“I would be delighted if Ralf felt like he wanted to take on more of a role in representing the LGBTQ+ community, but of course there is no weight or duty on him to do that.”
Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have been public allies while on the grid, with Vettel speaking out in support on numerous occasions, wearing “Same Love” T-shirts in Hungary and rainbow helmets elsewhere.
“What it takes is a combination of LGBTQ+ people being themselves and being authentic, but we should never underestimate the ability of allies to really make a difference through the things that they say,” Morris says.
“That is a really important part of the cultural shift we’re trying to achieve.
“Everyone can be an ally in helping to bring about the shift that we’re trying to achieve in the sport. Sharing posts like Ralf’s or the content that Racing Pride puts out helps to show other people around you that this is an issue that people care about, that people do support the community. That can make a really big difference.”