Michael Schumacher ( ) (born
3 January 1969, in Hürth-Hermülheim
, West
Germany
) is a German
former
Formula One driver and seven-time
Formula One world drivers' champion, and current advisor for
Ferrari. According to the
official Formula One
website, he is
"statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen". He is
the only German to win the
Formula One World
championship, and is credited with popularizing Formula One in
Germany. In a 2006
FIA
survey, Michael Schumacher was voted the most popular driver of the
season among Formula One fans.
After winning two championships with
Benetton, Michael Schumacher moved to
Scuderia Ferrari in 1996 and won
five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000–2004.
Schumacher holds many records in Formula One, including most
drivers' championships, race victories, fastest laps,
pole positions, points scored and most races
won in a single season. Schumacher is the only Formula One driver
to have an entire season of podium finishes, a feat he accomplished
in
2002. His driving
sometimes created controversy: he was twice involved in collisions
that determined the outcome of the world championship, most notably
his disqualification from the
1997 championship for causing a
collision with
Jacques
Villeneuve. After the
2006
Formula One season Schumacher retired from race driving.
Schumacher planned to return to F1 racing for the
2009 European Grand Prix as a
replacement for injured Ferrari driver
Felipe Massa. However, it then became apparent
that he was not fit enough to race due to a neck injury he
sustained during a German Superbike test earlier in the year. In
November 2009, BBC pundit
Eddie Jordan
said he believes Schumacher will return to racing with the
Mercedes Grand Prix team in 2010.
Off the
track, Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO
and a
spokesman for driver safety. He has been involved in
numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life and donated tens
of millions of dollars to charity. He is the elder brother of
former F1 driver
Ralf Schumacher,
who currently races in the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
(DTM). They stand as the only brothers in F1 history to have both
won races and they scored the first sibling 1-2 finish in Formula
One.
Early years
Schumacher
was born in Hürth
Hermülheim, to Rolf Schumacher, a bricklayer, and his wife Elisabeth. When
Schumacher was four, his father modified his
pedal kart by adding a small motorcycle engine.
When
Schumacher crashed it into a lamp post in Kerpen
, his parents
took him to the karting track at
Kerpen-Horrem, where he became the youngest member of the karting
club. His father soon built him a kart from discarded parts
and at the age of six Schumacher won his first club championship.
To support his son's racing, Rolf Schumacher took on a second job
renting and repairing karts, while his wife worked at the track's
canteen. Nevertheless, when Schumacher needed a new engine costing
800
DM (600 €), his parents were unable
to afford it; Michael was able to continue racing by support from
local businessmen.
Regulations in Germany require a driver to be at least 14 years old
to obtain a kart license.
To get around this, Schumacher obtained a
license in Luxembourg
at the age of 12.
In 1983, he obtained his German license, a year after he won the
German Junior Kart Championship. From 1984 on, Schumacher won many
German and
European kart championships. He
joined Eurokart dealer Adolf Neubert in 1985 and by 1987 he was the
German and European kart champion, then he quit school and began
working as a mechanic. In 1988 he made his first step into
single-seat car racing by participating in the German
Formula Ford and
Formula König series, winning the
latter.
In 1989, Schumacher signed with
Willi
Weber's WTS
Formula 3 team. Funded by
Weber, he competed in the German Formula 3 series, winning the
title in 1990. At the end of 1990, along with his Formula 3 rivals
Heinz-Harald Frentzen and
Karl Wendlinger, he joined the
Mercedes junior racing programme in
the
World
Sports-Prototype Championship. This was unusual for a young
driver: most of Schumacher's contemporaries would compete in
Formula 3000 on the way to Formula One.
However, Weber advised Schumacher that being exposed to
professional press conferences and driving powerful cars in long
distance races would help his career.
Schumacher gained
victory at the season finale at the Autódromo
Hermanos Rodríguez
in a Sauber-Mercedes C11 and finished fifth in the
drivers' championship. He continued with the team in the 1991 World Sportscar
Championship season, winning again at the final race of the
season at Autopolis
in Japan with a Sauber-Mercedes-Benz
C291, leading to a ninth place finish in the drivers
championship. He also competed at
Le Mans during that season,
finishing 5th in a car shared with
Karl
Wendlinger and Fritz Kreutzpointner. In 1991, he competed in
one race in the
Japanese Formula 3000
Championship, finishing second.
Formula One career
Overview
Schumacher was noted throughout his career for his ability to
produce fast laps at crucial moments in a race, to push his car to
the very limit for sustained periods. Motor sport author
Christopher Hilton observed in 2003 that "A measure of a driver's
capabilities is his performance in wet races, because the most
delicate car control and sensitivity are needed," and noted that
like other great drivers, Schumacher's record in wet conditions
shows very few mistakes: up to the end of the 2003 season,
Schumacher won 17 of the 30 races in wet conditions he contested.
Some of Schumacher's best performances occurred in such conditions,
earning him the nicknames "
Regenkönig" (rain king) or
"
Regenmeister" (rain master). , even in the non-German
language media. He is known as "the Red Baron", due to his red
Ferrari and in reference to the German
Manfred von Richthofen, the famous
flying ace of
World War I. Schumacher's nicknames include
"Schumi","Schuey"and "Schu".Schumacher is often credited with
popularising Formula One in Germany, where it was formerly
considered a fringe sport. When Schumacher retired in 2006, three
of the top ten drivers were German, more than any other nationality
and more than have ever been present in Formula One history.
Younger German drivers, such as
Sebastian Vettel, felt Schumacher was key
in their becoming Formula One drivers. In the latter part of his
Formula One career, and as one of the senior drivers, Schumacher
was the president of the
Grand Prix Drivers'
Association.
Debut
Schumacher made his Formula One debut with the
Jordan-
Ford team at the
1991 Belgian Grand Prix, driving car
number 32 as a replacement for the imprisoned
Bertrand Gachot. Schumacher, still a
contracted Mercedes driver, was signed by
Eddie Jordan after Mercedes paid Jordan
$150,000 for his debut.
The week before the race, Schumacher
impressed Jordan designer Gary Anderson and team manager
Trevor Foster during a test drive at Silverstone
. His manager Willi
Weber assured Jordan that Schumacher knew the challenging
Spa
track well, although in fact he had only seen it as
a spectator. During the race weekend, team-mate
Andrea de Cesaris was meant to show
Schumacher the circuit but was held up with contract negotiations.
Schumacher then learned the track on his own, by cycling around the
track on a fold-up
bike he had brought with
him. He impressed the paddock by qualifying seventh in this race.
This matched the team's season-best grid position, and
out-qualified 11-year veteran de Cesaris. Motorsport journalist Joe
Saward reported that after qualifying "clumps of German journalists
were talking about 'the best talent since
Stefan Bellof'". Schumacher retired on the
first lap of the race with
clutch
problems.
Benetton
After his debut, and despite Jordan's signed
agreement in principle with
Schumacher's Mercedes management for the remainder of the season,
Schumacher was signed by
Benetton-
Ford for the following race. Jordan
applied for an injunction in the UK courts to prevent Schumacher
driving for Benetton, but lost the case as they had not yet signed
a contract. Schumacher finished the
1991 Formula One Season with four
points out of six races. His best finish was fifth in his second
race, the
Italian Grand
Prix, in which he finished ahead of his team-mate and
three-time World Champion
Nelson
Piquet.
At the start of the
1992 Formula
One season the
Sauber team, planning
their Formula One debut with Mercedes backing for the following
year, invoked a clause in Schumacher's contract which stated that
if Mercedes entered Formula One, Schumacher would drive for them.
It was eventually agreed that Schumacher would stay with Benetton,
Peter Sauber said that "[Schumacher]
didn't want to drive for us. Why would I have forced him?". The
year was dominated by the Williams of
Nigel Mansell and
Riccardo Patrese, featuring powerful
Renault engines,
semi-automatic gearboxes and
active suspension to control the
car's ride height. In the 'conventional' Benetton B192 Schumacher
took his place on the
podium for the first
time, after finishing third in the
1992 Mexican Grand Prix.
He went
on to take his first victory at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix, in a wet
race at the Spa-Francorchamps
circuit, which by 2003 he would call "far and away
my favourite track". He finished third in the Drivers'
Championship in 1992 with 53 points, three points behind runner-up
Patrese.
The Williams of
Damon Hill and
Alain Prost also dominated the season. Benetton
introduced their own active suspension and traction control early
in the season, last of the frontrunning teams to do so. Schumacher
won one race, the
Portuguese
Grand Prix where he beat Prost, and had nine podium finishes,
but retired in seven of the other 15 races. He finished the season
in fourth, with 52 points.
1994–1995: World Championship years
The season was Schumacher's first
Drivers'
Championship. The season, however, was marred by the deaths of
Ayrton Senna and
Roland Ratzenberger during the
San Marino Grand Prix and by
allegations
that several teams, including Schumacher's Benetton team, broke
the sport's technical regulations.
Schumacher won six of the first seven races and was leading the
Spanish Grand Prix, before a
gearbox failure left him stuck in fifth gear. Schumacher finished
the race in second. Following the San Marino Grand Prix, the
Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren teams were investigated on suspicion
of breaking the
FIA-imposed
ban on electronic aids. Benetton and McLaren initially refused to
hand over their
source code for
investigation. When they did so, the FIA discovered hidden
functionality in both teams' software, but no evidence that it had
been used in a race. Both teams were fined $100,000 for their
initial refusal to cooperate. However, the McLaren software, which
was a gearbox program that allowed automatic shifts, was deemed
legal. By contrast, the Benetton software was deemed to be a form
of 'launch control' which would have allowed Schumacher to make
perfect starts, which was explicitly outlawed by the regulations.
At the
British Grand Prix,
Schumacher was penalised for overtaking on the formation lap. He
then ignored the penalty and the subsequent
black flag, which indicates that
the driver must immediately return to the pits, for which he was
disqualified and later given a two-race ban. Benetton blamed the
incident on a communication error between the stewards and the
team. Schumacher was also disqualified after winning the
Belgian Grand Prix after his car was
found to have illegal wear on its
skidblock, a measure used
after the accidents at Imola to limit
downforce and hence cornering speed. Benetton
protested that the skidblock had been damaged when Schumacher spun
over a kerb, but the FIA rejected their appeal. These incidents
helped
Damon Hill close the points gap,
with Schumacher leading by a single point going into the final race
in
Australia. On lap 36
of the race Schumacher clipped the guardrail while leading from
Hill. With his race over by then, he steered towards Hill's path as
the latter was passing him, forcing a crash that took Hill out of
the race. As neither he nor Hill scored, Schumacher won a very
controversial championship, the first German to do so.
In Schumacher successfully defended his title with Benetton. He now
had the same Renault engine as Williams. He accumulated 33 more
points than second-placed Damon Hill. With team-mate
Johnny Herbert, he took Benetton to its first
Constructors'
Championship and became the youngest two-time world champion in
Formula One history.
The
season was marred by several collisions with Hill, in particular an
overtaking manoeuvre by Hill took them both out of the British
Grand Prix
on lap 45 and again on lap 23 of the Italian Grand Prix.
Schumacher won nine of the 17 races, and finished on the podium 11
times. Only once did he qualify worse than fourth; at the
1995 Belgian Grand Prix, he
qualified 16th, but went on to win the race. After Schumacher left
Benetton at the end of the year, the team won only one more race
before being bought by Renault in 2000.
Ferrari
In , Schumacher joined
Scuderia Ferrari
S.p.A., a team which had last won the Drivers' Championship
with
Jody Scheckter in and which had
not won the Constructors' Cup since 1983 with drivers
René Arnoux and
Patrick Tambay at the wheel. He left Benetton
a year before his contract with them expired; he later cited the
team's damaging actions in 1994 as his reason for opting out of his
deal. A year later, ex-Benetton employees
Rory Byrne and
Ross
Brawn, who had been Technical Director at Benetton since 1991,
and who was one of the key members behind Schumacher's title
successes with the team in 1994 and 1995, decided to join
Schumacher at Ferrari. This increased Schumacher's motivation to
build a more experienced and potentially championship-winning team
around him.
Ferrari had previously come close to the championship in 1982 and
1990. The team had suffered a disastrous downturn in the early
1990s, partially as their famous V12 engine was no longer
competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient
V10s of their competitors. Various drivers, notably
Alain Prost, had given the vehicles labels such
as "truck", "pig", and "accident waiting to happen". The poor
performance of the Ferrari pit crews was considered a running joke.
At the end of 1995, though the team had improved into a solid
competitor, it was still considered inferior to front-running teams
such as Benetton and Williams. Schumacher declared the
Ferrari 412T good enough to win the
Championship.
Schumacher,
Ross Brawn,
Rory Byrne, and
Jean
Todt (hired in 1993), have been credited as turning this once
struggling team into the most successful team in Formula One
history. Three-time World Champion
Jackie
Stewart believes the transformation of the Ferrari team was
Schumacher's greatest feat.
Eddie
Irvine also joined the team, moving from
Jordan.
1996–1999
Schumacher finished third in the Drivers' Championship in 1996, and
helped Ferrari to second place in the constructors' championship
ahead of his old team Benetton. He won three races, more than the
team's total tally for the period from 1991 to 1995. During the
initial part of the 1996 season, the car had had reliability
trouble and Schumacher did not finish 6 of the 16 races. He took
his first win for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he
lapped the entire field up to third place in the wet. In the
French Grand Prix Schumacher
qualified in
pole position, but
suffered engine failure on the race's formation lap. However at
Spa-Francorchamps,
Schumacher used well-timed pit-stops to fend off the Williams'
Jacques Villeneuve. Following
that, at
Monza, Schumacher
won in front of the
tifosi.
Schumacher's ability, combined with the improving reliability of
Ferrari, enabled him to end the season, putting up a challenge to
eventual race and championship winner
Damon
Hill at
Suzuka.
Michael Schumacher and
Jacques
Villeneuve vied for the title in . Villeneuve, driving the
superior
Williams FW19, led the
championship in the early part of the season. However, by
mid-season, Schumacher had taken the Championship lead, winning
five races, and entered the season's
final Grand Prix with a one-point
advantage.
Towards the end of the race, held at
Jerez
, Schumacher's Ferrari developed a coolant leak and
loss of performance indicating he may not finish the race.
As Villeneuve approached to pass his rival, Schumacher attempted to
provoke an accident but got the short end of the stick, retiring
from the race. Villeneuve went on and scored four points to take
the championship. Schumacher was punished for unsportsmanlike
conduct for the collision and was disqualified from the Drivers'
Championship.
In ,
Finnish
driver Mika
Häkkinen became Schumacher's main title competition.
Häkkinen won the first two races of the season, gaining a 16 point
advantage over Schumacher. With the Ferrari improving significantly
in the second half of the season, Schumacher won six races and had
five other podium finishes. Ferrari took a 1–2 finish at the
Italian Grand Prix, which
tied Schumacher with Häkkinen for the lead of the Drivers'
Championship with 80 points, but Häkkinen won the Championship by
winning the final two races. There were two controversies; at the
British Grand Prix
Schumacher was leading on the last lap when he turned into the pit
lane, crossed the start finish line and stopped for a ten second
stop go penalty. There was some doubt whether this counted as
serving the penalty, but the win stood. At
Spa,
Schumacher was leading the race by 40 seconds in heavy spray, but
collided with
David Coulthard's
McLaren when the Scot, a lap down, slowed in very poor visibility
to let Schumacher past. After both cars returned to the pits,
Schumacher rushed to McLaren's garage and accused Coulthard of
trying to kill him.
Schumacher's efforts helped Ferrari win the Constructors title in .
He lost his chance to win the Drivers' Championship at the
British Grand Prix: at the
high-speed
Stowe Corner, his car's rear brake failed,
sending him off the track and resulting in a broken leg. During his
long absence, he was replaced by Finnish driver
Mika Salo. After missing six races, he made his
return at the inaugural
Malaysian Grand Prix, qualifying
in the pole position by almost a second. He then assumed the role
of second driver, assisting team mate
Eddie
Irvine's bid to win the Drivers' Championship for Ferrari. In
the last race of the season, the
Japanese Grand Prix, Häkkinen won
his second consecutive title. Schumacher would later say that
Häkkinen was the opponent he respected the most.
2000–2004: World Championship years
Schumacher won his fourth world title
in
During this period Schumacher won more races and championships than
any other driver in the history of the sport. Schumacher won his
third World Championship in after a year-long battle with Häkkinen.
Schumacher won the first three races of the season and five of the
first eight. Mid-way through the year, Schumacher's chances
suffered with three consecutive non-finishes, allowing Häkkinen to
close the gap in the standings. Häkkinen then took another two
victories, before Schumacher won at the
Italian Grand Prix. At the post race
press conference, after equalling the number of wins (41) won by
his idol,
Ayrton Senna, Schumacher
broke into tears. The championship fight would come down to the
penultimate race of the season, the
Japanese Grand Prix. Starting from
pole position, Schumacher lost the lead to Häkkinen at the start.
After his second pit-stop, however, Schumacher came out ahead of
Häkkinen and went on to win the race and the championship.
In , Schumacher took his fourth drivers' title. Four other drivers
won races, but none sustained a season-long challenge for the
championship. Schumacher scored a record-tying nine wins and
clinched the world championship with four races yet to run. He
finished the championship with 123 points, 58 ahead of runner-up
Coulthard. Season highlights included the
Canadian Grand Prix, where
Schumacher finished 2nd to his brother Ralf, thus scoring the first
ever 1–2 finish by brothers in Formula One; and the
Belgian Grand Prix in which
Schumacher scored his 52nd career win, breaking
Alain Prost's record for most career wins.
In , Schumacher used the
Ferrari F2002
to retain his Drivers' Championship.There was again some
controversy however at the
Austrian Grand Prix, where his
teammate,
Rubens Barrichello was
leading but in the final metres of the race, under orders, slowed
to allow Schumacher to win the race. The crowd broke into outraged
boos at the result and Schumacher tried to make amends by placing
Barrichello at the top step of the podium. At the
United States Grand Prix later
that year, Schumacher dominated the race and was set for a close
finish with Barrichello. At the end he slowed down and Barrichello
took the victory.In winning the Drivers' Championship he equalled
the record set by
Juan Manuel
Fangio of five world championships. Ferrari won 15 out of 17
races, and Schumacher won the title with six races remaining in the
season. Schumacher broke his own record, shared with
Nigel Mansell, of nine race wins in a season,
by winning eleven times and finishing every race on the podium. He
finished with 144 points, a record-breaking 67 points ahead of the
runner-up, his teammate
Rubens
Barrichello. This pair finished 9 of the 17 races in the first
two places.
Schumacher broke Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five World Drivers'
Championships by winning the drivers' title for the sixth time in ,
a closely contested season.
The biggest competition came once again from
the McLaren
Mercedes
and Williams BMW
teams. In the first race, Schumacher ran off track, and in
the following two, was involved in collisions. He fell 16 points
behind
Kimi Räikkönen.
Schumacher won the
San Marino
Grand Prix and the next two races, and closed within two points
of Räikkönen. Aside from Schumacher's victory in
Canada, and Barrichello's victory
in
Britain, the mid-season
was dominated by Williams drivers
Ralf
Schumacher and
Juan Pablo
Montoya, who each claimed two victories. After the
Hungarian Grand Prix, Michael
Schumacher led
Juan Pablo Montoya
and
Kimi Räikkönen by only
one and two points, respectively. Ahead of the next race, the FIA
announced changes to the way tyre widths were to be measured: this
forced
Michelin, supplier to Williams and
McLaren among others, to rapidly redesign their tyres before the
Italian Grand Prix.
Schumacher, running on
Bridgestone
tyres, won the next two races. After Montoya was penalised in the
United States Grand
Prix, only Schumacher and Räikkönen remained in contention for
the title. At the final round, the
Japanese Grand Prix, Schumacher
needed only one point whilst Räikkönen needed to win. By finishing
the race in eighth place, Schumacher took one point and assured his
sixth World Drivers' title, ending the season two points ahead of
Räikkönen.
In , Schumacher won a record twelve of the first thirteen races of
the season, only failing to finish in Monaco after an accident with
Juan Pablo Montoya during a
safety car
period when he briefly locked his car's brakes. He clinched a
record
seventh drivers'
title at the
Belgian Grand
Prix. He finished that season with a record 148 points, 34
points ahead of the runner-up, teammate Rubens Barrichello, and set
a new record of 13 race wins out of a possible 18, surpassing his
previous best of 11 wins from the
2002 season.
2005–2006
.jpg/180px-Michael_Schumacher-I'm_the_man_(cropped).jpg)
Schumacher in
In Schumacher's sole win came at the
United States Grand Prix.
Prior to that race, the Michelin tyres, used by most teams, were
found to have significant safety issues. When no compromise between
the teams and the FIA could be reached, all but the six drivers
using Bridgestone tyres dropped out of the race after the formation
lap. However, rule changes for the 2005 season required tyres to
last an entire race, tipping the overall advantage to teams using
Michelins over teams such as Ferrari that relied on Bridgestone
tyres. The rule changes were partly in an effort to dent Ferrari's
dominance and make the series more interesting. Less than half-way
through the season, Schumacher said "I don't think I can count
myself in this battle any more. It was like trying to fight with a
blunted weapon.... If your weapons are weak you don't have a
chance." The most notable moment of the season for Schumacher was
his battle with
Fernando Alonso in
San Marino, where he
started 13th and finished only 0.2 seconds behind the Spanish
driver. Schumacher retired in six of the 19 races. He finished the
season in third with 62 points, fewer than half the points of world
champion Alonso.
became the last season of Schumacher's racing career. After three races, Schumacher had 11 points and was already 17 points behind Alonso. He won the following two races, his first wins in 18 months, not including the boycotted 2005 United States Grand Prix.
Schumacher was stripped of pole position at the
Monaco Grand Prix and started the
race at the back of the grid. This was due to him stopping his car
and blocking part of the circuit while Alonso was on his qualifying
lap; he still managed to work his way up to 5th place on the
notoriously cramped Monaco circuit.By the
Canadian Grand Prix, the ninth race
of the season, he was 25 points behind Alonso, and the three wins
that followed helped him reduce his disadvantage to 11. His win at
Hockenheim was the last home win for a German as of 2008. After his
victories in
Italy (in which
Alonso had an engine failure) and
China, in which Alonso had tyre
problems, Schumacher led in the championship standings for the
first time during the season. Although he and Alonso had the same
point total, Schumacher was in front because he had won more races.
The Japanese Grand Prix was led by Schumacher with only 16 laps to
go, when, for the first time since the
2000 French Grand Prix, Schumacher's
car suffered engine failure. Alonso won the race, which gave him a
ten point championship lead. With only one race left in the season,
Schumacher could only win the championship if he won the season
finale and Alonso scored no points.
Before the
Brazilian Grand
Prix, Schumacher conceded the title to Alonso. In pre-race
ceremonies,
football legend
Pelé presented a trophy to Schumacher for
his years of dedication to Formula One. During the race's
qualifying session, Schumacher had the best time of all drivers
through the first two sessions; but a fuel pressure problem
prevented him from completing a single lap during the third
session, forcing him to start the race in tenth position. Early in
the race Schumacher moved up to sixth place. However, in overtaking
Alonso's teammate,
Giancarlo
Fisichella, Schumacher experienced a tyre puncture caused by
the front wing of Fisichella's car. Schumacher pitted and
consequently fell to 19th place, 70 seconds behind teammate and
race leader
Felipe Massa. Schumacher
recovered and overtook both Fisichella and Räikkönen to secure
fourth place. His performance was classified in the press as
"heroic", an "utterly breath-taking drive", and a "performance
that ... sums up his career".
2009 - Planned comeback
In his
capacity as racing advisor to Ferrari, Schumacher was present in
Budapest
for the 2009
Hungarian Grand Prix when Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was seriously injured after being
struck by a suspension spring during qualifying. As it
became clear that Massa would be unable to compete in the next race
at Valencia, Schumacher was chosen as a replacement for the
Brazilian driver. Therefore, on 29 July 2009, Ferrari announced
that they planned to draft in Schumacher for the
2009 European Grand Prix, and
subsequent Grands Prix until Massa is able to race again. He had
already started to test in a modified F2007 to prepare himself. He
had been unable to test the
2009 car,
due to testing restrictions. Ferrari appealed for special
permission to test, but
Williams,
Red Bull and
Toro Rosso were against this test.
However, Schumacher called off his return on August 10 due to the
severity of his neck injury which he got in a motorcycle accident
earlier in the year.
It is still unclear if Schumacher will race in
2010, as Ferrari's president
Luca di Montezemolo
hinted Ferrari might push for a rule change which would allow
Formula One teams to run three cars during a Grand Prix. In
November 2009, BBC pundit Eddie Jordan said he believes Schumacher
will return to racing with the
Mercedes Grand Prix team in 2010.
Schumacher's spokeswoman said it was "highly unlikely - but never
say never".
Helmet
Schumacher's helmet from the and
seasons.
The change of colour occurred midway through the 2000
season
Schumacher in conjunction with
Schuberth
helped develop the first lightweight carbon helmet. In 2004, a
prototype was publicly tested by being driven over by a
tank; it survived intact. The helmet keeps the driver
cool by funneling directed airflow through fifty holes.
Schumacher's helmet sports the colours of the
German flag and his sponsor's decals. On the
top is a blue circle with white
astroids.
After Schumacher joined Ferrari, a prancing horse was added on the
back. In 2000 in order to differentiate his colours from new
teammate Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher changed the upper blue
colour and some of the white areas to red.
He sported one-off helmet designs three times. For the
1998 Japanese Grand Prix, a title
decider with
Mika Häkkinen, he
replaced the German flag with a chequered flag motif, and
reflective silver replacing the white areas. At the
2004 Italian Grand Prix, the German
flag design was replaced with an Italian flag in honour of his
team's home race. For his final Grand Prix race, a special helmet
that included the names of his ninety-one Grand Prix
victories.
Honours
Schumacher has been honoured many times during his career. In April
2002, for his contributions to sport and his contributions in
raising awareness of child education, he was named as one of the
UNESCO Champions for sport, joining the other eight which include
Pelé,
Serhiy
Bubka and
Justine Henin. He won
the
Laureus World Sportsman
of the Year award twice, in 2002 and 2004 for his performances
in the and seasons respectively. He has also received nominations
for the 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 awards. No-one has been nominated
more times than Schumacher in the award's seven-year history.
In honour of Schumacher's racing career and his efforts to improve
safety and the sport, he was awarded an
FIA Gold
Medal for Motor Sport in 2006.
In 2007, in recognition of his contribution
to Formula One racing, the Nürburgring
racing track renamed turns 8 and 9 (the Audi and
Shell Kurves) as the Schumacher S, and a month later he
presented A1 Team Germany with the A1 World Cup at the
A1GP World Cup of
Motorsport 2007 awards ceremony. He was nominated for the
Prince of Asturias Award for
Sport for 2007, which he won both for sporting prowess and for
his humanitarian record.
In 2008 the Swiss Football Association appointed Schumacher as the
Swiss ambassador for the
2008 European football
championship.
Retirement
BMW Sauber with "Thanks Michael"
messages towards Michael Schumacher on the back of their cars
Schumacher was on the podium after winning the
2006 Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari
issued a press release stating that he would retire from racing at
the end of the 2006 season. Schumacher confirmed his retirement.
The press release stated that Schumacher would continue working for
Ferrari. It was revealed on October 29, 2006 that Ferrari wanted
Schumacher to act as assistant to the newly appointed
CEO Jean Todt. This would
involve selecting the team's future drivers. After Schumacher's
announcement, leading Formula One figures such as
Niki Lauda and
David
Coulthard hailed Schumacher as the greatest all-round racing
driver in the history of Formula One. The
tifosi and the Italian press, who did not always take
to Schumacher's relatively cold public persona, displayed an
affectionate response after he announced his retirement.
Advisor for Ferrari
2007: Advisor
Schumacher at Finali Mondiali
celebrations in the F2007
During the
2007 Formula One
season Schumacher acted as Ferrari's advisor and Jean Todt's
'super assistant'. He attended several Grands Prix during the
season.
Schumacher drove the Ferrari F2007 for the first time on 24 October
at Ferrari's home track in Fiorano
, Italy. He ran no more than five laps and no
lap times were recorded.
A Ferrari spokesman said the short drive was
done for the Fiat board of directors, who were holding their
meeting in Maranello
.
On 13 November 2007 Schumacher, who had not driven a Formula One
car since he had retired a year earlier, undertook a formal test
session for the first time aboard the F2007.
He returned in
December, to continue helping Ferrari with their development
program at Jerez circuit. He focused on testing electronics and tyres
for the 2008 Formula One season.
2008: Car development
In 2007, former Ferrari top manager
Ross
Brawn said that Schumacher is very likely and also happy to
continue testing in 2008. Michael Schumacher later explained his
role further, saying that he will
"deal with the development of
the car inside Gestione
Sportiva", and as part of that, will drive the car, but
not too often.
During 2008 Schumacher has also competed as a
motorcycle racer in the
IDM Superbike-series. He
states that he has no intention of a second competitive career in
this sport.
He is quoted as saying that riding a Ducati was the most
exhilarating thing he has done, the second most being sky
diving.
Controversy
During his long career Schumacher has been involved in several
incidents, which have caused considerable controversy. Schumacher
has been vilified in the
British media
for his involvement in title-deciding collisions in 1994 and 1997.
German and Italian newspapers widely condemned his actions in 1997.
The 1994 incident was viewed by the FIA as a racing incident, and
brought no sanction; whereas the 1997 incident saw Schumacher
disqualified from the championship standings.
Championship deciding collisions
Going into the
1994
Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the
1994 season, Schumacher led
Damon Hill by a single point in the Drivers'
Championship. Schumacher led the race from the beginning with Hill
closely following him. On lap 35, Schumacher went off track,
hitting a wall with his right side wheels. It is unknown whether
Schumacher's car was damaged, as he returned to the track at
reduced speed but still leading the race. At the next corner, when
Hill attempted a pass on the inside while Schumacher was turning
into the corner, Schumacher and Hill collided. Schumacher's car was
tipped up onto two wheels and eliminated on the spot. Hill pitted
immediately and retired from the race with irreparable damage. As
neither driver scored Schumacher took the title.
Opinion is divided over the incident. British Formula One
journalist and author
Alan Henry has
written that Schumacher was blamed by "many F1 insiders" for the
incident, however British Formula One commentator
Murray Walker believes it was not a deliberate
move. The race stewards judged it a racing accident and took no
action against either driver.
At the
1997 European Grand Prix at
Jerez, the last race of the season, Schumacher led another
driver, this time Williams' Jacques
Villeneuve, by one point in the Drivers' Championship.
Although Schumacher and Villeneuve had set the same time during
qualifying, the Canadian driver started the race in pole position
due to his being the first to set the time. By the first corner of
the race, Schumacher was ahead of Villeneuve. On lap 48, Villeneuve
passed Schumacher at the Dry Sack Corner. As he did so, Schumacher
turned into the Williams, the right-front wheel of Schumacher's
Ferrari hitting the left side pod of Villeneuve's car. Schumacher
retired from the race immediately while Villeneuve was able to
finish the race in the third place, taking four points and so
becoming the World Champion.
Two weeks after the race, Schumacher was excluded from the results
for the season after a
FIA
disciplinary hearing disqualified him, finding that his "manoeuvre
was an instinctive reaction and althoughdeliberate not made with
malice or premeditation. It was a serious error." This made him the
only driver in the history of the sport, to be disqualified from a
World Championship. Schumacher accepted the decision and admitted
having made a mistake.
Team Orders
Historically,
team orders had always
been an accepted part of Formula One. However, during Schumacher's
tenure at both Benetton and Ferrari, the team often employed team
orders as a matter of routine. Schumacher would generally benefit,
with the exception of the final 2 races of 1999, when he supported
Eddie Irvine's title bid. This did not attract significant
controversy in years where Schumacher was clearly involved in a
title battle with drivers from other teams, but his dominant years
(2001-2004) saw many accuse him and Ferrari of deploying team
orders in a manner that undermined the sport and damaged its
credibility.
At the
2002 Austrian Grand
Prix, Schumacher's teammate, Rubens Barrichello, took pole and
led the race from the start. In the final metres of the race, the
Brazilian driver, under orders from Ferrari, slowed his car to make
way for Schumacher to pass and win the race. This angered fans who
were watching the race and it was claimed that the team's actions
showed a lack of sportsmanship and respect to the spectators, with
many claiming that Schumacher did not need to be "gifted" wins in
only the 6th race of the season, particularly given that he had
already won 4 of the previous 5 grands prix, and that Barrichello
had dominated the race weekend up to that point. At the podium
ceremony, Schumacher pushed Barrichello onto the top step, and for
this disturbance, the Ferrari team incurred a
US$1 million fine. This was the only penalty incurred,
as despite the outcry, the switching of positions did not break any
actual sporting or technical regulation. Later in the season at the
end of the
2002 United
States Grand Prix, Schumacher slowed down within sight of the
finishing line, meaning that Barrichello took the win by 0.011
seconds, the 2nd closest margin in F1 history. Nobody, including
Barrichello, appeared to know why Schumacher lifted, and
Schumacher's own explanation varied between it being him "returning
the favour" for Austria (now that Schumacher's title was secure),
or trying to engineer a dead-heat (a feat derided as
near-impossible in a sport where timings are taken to within a
thousandth of a second). The FIA subsequently banned "Team orders
which interfere with the race result".
Other incidents
In 1995, Schumacher and
Benetton were
publicly determined not to incur such controversy, but got off to a
bad start when Schumacher and Williams driver
David Coulthard were disqualified for fuel
irregularities. On appeal, both drivers had their results and
points reinstated, but both teams lost the points the results would
normally have earned in the constructors championship (for 1995,
Benetton switched to Renault engines, also used by Williams. With
this switch came a move to using oils from Renault partner,
Elf).
The remainder of 1995 went without major controversy, although the
title battle with
Damon Hill became very
intense and acrimonious, particularly after their collisions in the
British and Italian Grands Prix, both of which forced the two
drivers to retire. Likewise the first two years of his Ferrari
career passed with little controversy, until the final race of 1997
(see above).
The 1998 Canadian Grand Prix saw Schumacher accused of dangerous
driving when his exit from the pitlane forced
Heinz Harald Frentzen off the track
and into retirement. Despite receiving a 10 second penalty,
Schumacher recovered and won the race. In the press conference, he
publicly accused
Damon Hill of weaving
dangerously as they fought for position, stating "If you want to
kill me, find some other way", a statement widely condemned as
either hypocritical, or a cynical ploy to divert attention from his
actions with Frentzen.
Two laps from the finish of the
1998 British Grand Prix, Michael
Schumacher was leading the race when he was issued a stop-and-go
penalty for overtaking a lapped car (
Alexander Wurz) during the early moments of a
Safety Car period. This penalty should
have involved going into the pit lane and stopping for 10 seconds.
But as the penalty was given with fewer than 12 laps remaining, and
since it was issued as a handwritten note, the Ferrari team was
confused as to whether the penalty was a stop and go penalty or
merely a penalty of 10 seconds to be added to Schumacher's race
time. The rules state that a driver must serve his penalty within
three laps of the penalty being issued, and on the third lap after
receiving the penalty, Schumacher turned into the pit lane to serve
his penalty. However, this was the last lap of the race, and as
Ferrari's pit box was located after the start/finish line,
Schumacher technically finished the race before serving the
penalty. The stewards initially resolved that problem by adding 10
seconds to Schumacher's race time, then later rescinded the penalty
completely due to the irregularities in how the penalty had been
issued.
In the
same season, after a race-ending collision whilst trying to lap
David Coulthard in heavy spray
during the Belgian Grand
Prix, Schumacher stormed into the McLaren garage and, as with the incident with Hill in
Canada, accused Coulthard of trying to kill him. Television
viewers saw an obviously-furious Schumacher shouting at Coulthard,
while both McLaren and Ferrari team members attempted to restrain
him and move him away from the McLaren garage. Coulthard recanted
some 5 years later after an incident caused him to suffer a similar
accident
Minor controversy came at the
2000 Austrian Grand Prix where,
after being hit at the first corner, Schumacher slowly moved his
stricken car out of the gravel, and abandoned it on the racing
line. Critics saw this as an (unsuccessful) attempt to force the
race director to restart the race (2000 rules would have allowed
him to take the restart in the spare car).
Although Schumacher took the pole position during the qualifying
for the
2006 Monaco Grand
Prix, there was controversy near the end of the session.
Schumacher stopped his car in the Rascasse corner, partially
blocking the circuit, while his main contender for the season
title,
Fernando Alonso, was on his
qualifying lap. Schumacher stated that he simply locked up the
wheels going into the corner and that the car then stalled while he
attempted to reverse out. Alonso believed he would have been on
pole if the incident had not happened. Schumacher was later
stripped of pole position by the race stewards and started the race
at the back of the grid.
Family and off-track life
Schumacher's younger brother
Ralf
was a Formula One driver until the end of 2007. Their stepbrother
Sebastian Stahl has also been
competing as a race car driver.In August 1995, Michael married
Corinna Betsch. They have two children, Gina-Maria (born in 1997)
and Mick (born in 1999). He has always been very protective of his
private life and is known to dislike the celebrity spotlight,
preferring a simple life.
The family currently lives near Gland,
Switzerland
. Their home is a 650 m² mansion with its
own underground garage and petrol station, situated on a private
beach on Lake
Geneva
. The family has two dogs - one stray that
Corinna fell in love with in Brazil, and an
Australian Shepherd named "Ed" whose
entrance to the family made headlines.
Schumacher personally
drove a taxi through the Bavarian town of Coburg
after
collecting the dog, enabling the family to catch their return
flight to Switzerland. Both Schumacher and the taxi driver
were reprimanded by local police.
One of his main hobbies is horse riding, and he plays
football for his local team
FC Echichens. He has appeared in several
football charity games and organised games between Formula One
drivers.
In 2004, Forbes Magazine listed him as the 2nd highest paid athlete
in the world. In 2005
Eurobusiness magazine identified
Schumacher as the world's first billionaire athlete. His 2004
salary was reported to be around
US$80 million.
Forbes magazine ranked him 17th in their "The
World's Most Powerful Celebrities" list. A significant share of his
income came from advertising. For example,
Deutsche Vermögensberatung
paid him $8 million over three years from 1999 for wearing a 10 by
8 centimetre advertisement on his post-race cap. The deal was
extended until 2010.
He donated $10 million for aid after the
2004 Indian
Ocean earthquake
. His donation surpassed that of any other
sports person, most sports leagues, many worldwide corporations and
even some countries. Schumacher's bodyguard Burkhard Cramer was
killed in the tsunami along with his two sons.
Schumacher is a special ambassador to
UNESCO and has donated 1.5 million Euros to the organization. Additionally, he paid
for the construction of a school for poor children and for area
improvements in Dakar
, Senegal
. He supports a hospital for child victims of
war in Sarajevo
, which specialises in caring for amputees.
In
Lima
, Peru
he funded
the "Palace for the Poor", a centre for helping homeless street
children obtain an education, clothing, food, medical attention,
and shelter. He stated his interest in these various efforts
was piqued both by his love for children and the fact that these
causes had received little attention. While an exact figure for the
amount of money he has donated throughout his life is unknown, it
is known that in his last four years as a driver, he donated at
least $50 million.
In 2008 it was revealed that he had donated
between $5M and $10M to the William J.
Clinton Presidential Center and
Park of Bill
Clinton.
Since his participation in a FIA European road safety campaign, as
part of his punishment after the collision at the
1997 European Grand Prix,
Schumacher has continued to support other campaigns, such as
Make Roads Safe, which is led by the
FIA Foundation and calls on
G8 countries and the
UN to recognise global road deaths as a major
global health issue. In 2008, Schumacher was the figurehead of an
advertising campaign by
Bacardi to raise
awareness about responsible drinking, with a focus on communicating
an international message 'drinking and driving don't mix'. He
featured in an advertising campaign for television, cinema and
online media, supported by consumer engagements, public relations
and digital media across the world.
On 21 June 2009, Schumacher appeared on
BBC2's
motoring programme
Top
Gear as
The Stig.
Presenter
Jeremy Clarkson hinted
later in the programme that Schumacher was not the regular Stig.
The BBC has since confirmed that this is the case; Schumacher was
there on that occasion because Ferrari would not allow anyone else
to drive the
Ferrari FXX which was
featured in the show.
Racing record
Career summary
Complete Formula One results
(
key) (Races in
bold indicate pole position; races in
italics indicate fastest lap)
* Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 WDC
due to dangerous driving in the
European Grand Prix, where he
caused an avoidable accident with Villeneuve. His points tally
would have placed him in second place in that year's
standings.
Formula One records
As of the end of the
2008
Formula One season, Michael Schumacher holds the following
F1 records:
| Record |
Number |
| Championship
titles |
7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) |
| Consecutive titles |
5 (2000–2004) |
| Race victories |
91 |
| Consecutive
wins |
7 ( , Europe–Hungary) |
| Wins with one team |
72 (Ferrari) |
| Wins at same GP |
8
(France ) |
| Wins at different GPs |
22 |
|
Longest Time between first and last wins |
14 years, 1 month and 2 days |
| Second places |
43 |
| Podiums |
154 |
|
Consecutive podium finishes |
19 (US
2001–Japan 2002) |
|
Points finishes |
190 |
| Consecutive points finishes |
24 (Hungary
2001–Malaysia
2003) |
| Laps leading |
4741 (22,155 km) |
| Pole
positions |
68 |
| Front
row starts |
115 |
| Fastest
laps |
76 |
|
Doubles |
40 |
|
Perfect Score |
22 |
| Championship
points |
1,369 |
| Most points in a season for a runner-up |
121 ( ) |
| Most wins in a season for a runner-up |
7 ( ) |
Wins
at Indianapolis (any racing class) |
5 |
Wins
at Monza (Formula One) |
5 |
| Wins in
a season |
13 (72%) ( ) |
|
Fastest laps in a season |
10 ( ) |
|
Points scored in a season |
148 (82% of Max available) ( ) |
|
Podium finishes in a season |
17 (100%) ( ) |
| Championship won with most races left |
6 ( ) |
| Consecutive years with a win |
15 ( – ) |
| Consecutive days as champion |
1813 (from 8 October 2000 until 25 September 2005) |
Record shared with Alberto Ascari (1952 Belgian GP–1953 Argentine GP). Some sources credit Ascari with nine consecutive wins, disregarding the 1953 Indianapolis 500 race, in which Ascari did not compete. The American race formed part of the world championship, but was not run to the same regulations as the other races and was very rarely attended by world championship drivers.
Record shared with Kimi Räikkönen ( ) and Alain Prost ( and )
Record shared with Kimi Räikkönen ( and ).
Books
References and notes
- Jochen
Rindt, who was born in Germany, won the Formula One World
Championship under the Austrian flag.
- Michael cancels F1-Comeback, Schumacher's
website. Retrieved 2009-11-01
- Hilton has defined a race in wet conditions as "all races where
it rained — even if that was a shower."
- . Benetton first raced traction control at the 1993 Monaco
Grand Prix, having introduced active suspension at the 1993
European Grand Prix (Domenjoz (2002) p. 40). Williams had first
raced an active system in 1987 and used it throughout
1992,(Autocourse (1992) p.50) while McLaren and Ferrari both
introduced active cars in the final races of the 1992
season.(Autocourse (1992) pp.42 & 80)
- http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77633
- Schumacher slips up in Superbike race www.itv-f1.com. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
- Motorcycle Sport and leisure magazine, Nov 2008 (interview with
Randy Mamola)
- Coverage of the collision occurs between 02:14 and 03:30.
- Forbes magazine has not yet included him on its billionaires list. More recently other sources have
estimated his net worth in 2006 somewhat lower, www.f1i.com reports
that it 'surpassed $800M'.
- http://nbc.sports.msnbc.com/id6786663
- All race and championship results (1991 - 2006) are taken from
the Official Formula 1 Website. 1991
Season review onwards. www.formula1.com. Retrieved 23 May
2007
All race and championship results (1991 - 2006) are taken from the
Official Formula 1 Website.
1991
Season review onwards. www.formula1.com. Retrieved 23 May
2007
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