A cabbie in southern Germany clearly hadn't put the pedal to the metal enough for retired Forumula One star Michael Schumacher. So after chatting amicably for a while, the racing champ asked the driver to move aside and took over the wheel himself.

"It was sheer lunacy," said taxi driver Tuncer Yilmaz, describing the drive from the town of Gesuelz to nearby Coburg airport to Munich's Abendzeitung.

The driver was impressed with the racing champ's moves, though.

"He took the curves with full speed, but you couldn't even notice it," he said. "[Schumacher] just knows how to do it."

Schumacher's spokeswoman confirmed the story on Wednesday, Dec. 12. "Schumi" (as he's fondly called in Germany) had flown in from Switzerland on his private jet Saturday to buy a puppy from an Australian Shepherd breeder.

Apparently, he was in a real hurry to catch his next flight to Milan, where he was headed after the puppy pick-up.