Michael Schumacher on the phone in Japan:

I got into photographing motor sport through my friendship with Damon Hill. When we met, 40 years ago, I had a job in the marketing department of an office supplies manufacturer and he was mostly on a motorbike, either earning his living as a dispatch rider or racing at Brands Hatch. Then he switched to racing on four wheels

– his dad, Graham Hill, had been a double Formula 1 world champion. Damon is a really shy bloke and it was important to him to be with people who weren’t just fascinated by his family history. I didn’t know one end of a racing car from the other.

My ambition was to work for Allsport, the sports photography agency. Eventually, I got a job there and stayed on the staff for three years until I couldn’t cope any more with going to Tottenham on a Tuesday night in the middle of February. Eamonn McCabe, the picture editor of the Guardian and the Observer, gave me a few shifts a week, and suddenly I was in at the deep end.

Damon and I shared an office in Shoreditch. He was trying to get sponsorship for his racing. The big dream was that he’d win the world championship and I’d be there to take the picture. Ten years later it happened.

I wanted to be the Don McCullin of sport. Everyone was shooting long-lens action and I hated it. People like Garry Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz influenced everything for me. It was about learning how to work around people, using short lenses, not getting noticed, earning trust. In 1992, I started doing a lot of work with the Williams F1 team, where Damon was the test driver. Then Alain Prost came in for 1993 and Damon became the No 2. When Prost left, Ayrton Senna came in for 1994 – which was big news.