Michael Schumacher | Formula 1's most succesful driver, stats, photos and bio

Michael Schumacher

Team: Mercedes GP
F1 Debut: 1991 - Belgian Grand Prix

Few other sportsmen in history can match the statistical dominance Michael Schumacher. He has taken more World Championships, more Grand Prix wins, more pole positions, and more points than anyone else in the Formula One record books. He has also led more laps, won in more different venues, and won the title with more races remaining than any other driver. Not only is Michael's list of achievements impressive, but he is a long way ahead of second place. If Schumacher takes just one victory in 2010 he will equal the total number of wins scored by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna combined.

Michael Schumacher is one of the greatest drivers of all time and was unchallenged as the benchmark in F1 for most of his 16 year career.

Michael started racing at a young age in Germany at a small Go Kart track owned by his father. He later moved into Formula Ford and German Formula Three, and got his big break with the Mercedes Sportscar team in 1990. Schumacher competed in two World Sportscar Championships and won a pair of races with the Sauber Mercedes team.

His talent was clear to see, but Michael only got to make his F1 debut thanks to a bit of good luck and some significant financial support. In 1991 Jordan's regular driver was arrested in London and unable to compete, meaning a replacement had to be found at short notice. Eddie Jordan chose Michael Schumacher due to the Mercedes cheque that came with him, but soon learned that he had actually signed someone quite special. During Schumacher's first taste of F1 machinery in a private test just a few days before his debut race, Jordan mechanics asked him to slow down because they didn't want him to risk damaging the car. Michael responded by telling the engineers, completely innocently, that he had not actually been pushing that hard and could have gone a lot faster. He had already broken the car's lap record.

Schumacher's impressive testing pace was followed by an even more impressive debut. The young German qualified seventh in the Jordan at Spa Francorchamps and totally obliterated his teammate, Andrea De Casaris. Sadly, Michael's first race was over on the first lap thanks to clutch failure but he had already done enough to display his skill.

Schumacher was signed by Benetton for the very next race, and took his first Grand Prix victory twelve months later. Another win followed in 1993 before Benetton was able to challenge for the world title.

1994 started as a classic year with Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna going head-to-head for the championship. Tragically, Senna was killed at Imola just three races into the season and Michael claimed the title under a cloud of controversy. During the season it emerged that his car was fitted with illegal traction control and that Benetton had broken the regulations by tampering with their fuel rig. Legal loopholes got the team off both cases, but some argue the FIA would have disqualified them anyway if Schumacher hadn't been filling the void left by Senna. Michael and Benetton were branded as cheats, and this was not helped when Schumacher sealed the World Championship by crashing into Damon Hill.

Michael won the title again with Benetton in 1995 (at the time becoming the youngest ever double World Champion) and did so without any controversy tainting the result. Schumacher dominated the season taking what was then a record of nine wins for the year.

Having proved his worth as the fastest driver in F1, Schumacher decided to change his career path and took on a monumental challenge. He made it his personal mission to return the greatest name in motoring to the top of Formula One, and for his services, Ferrari gave Michael a phenomenal paycheque. At one point, Schumacher received the highest regular salary of any sportsman in the world.

Michael said when he joined Ferrari that it would take three years for them to win the world title together. It took longer. 1996 was a disaster since the car was slow and unreliable, and the Williams team was dominant. The following season was much stronger, although Ferrari still weren't able give Schumacher a consistent race winner. Despite this, Michael made up much of the difference and used wet races or high attrition to score wins in whenever he could. In 1997 he did enough to take the championship down to the very last race, but it was ultimately a lost cause. Schumacher was one point ahead of Jacques Villeneuve coming into the final event, and when his rival looked like taking the race lead, Schumacher tried to ram him off the circuit. Michael ended up damaging his own car in the accident whilst Villeneuve finished the race to become World Champion. Schumacher was later disqualified form the championship standings for his deliberate act of poor sportsmanship, but the irreparable damage to his reputation was much worse.

In 1998 the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were simply too quick for Schumacher and he distressingly lost the championship in the final race of the year again, this time by stalling on the grid. 1999 was far more positive and Michael won two races early in the season. Yet, it fate was not kind to Schumacher and he broke his leg when his brakes failed at Silverstone. He missed six races and any chance of taking the title for Ferrari.

2000 also started strongly for Ferrari and Michael romped to an early season championship lead. It finally looked like Schumacher would claim the title in a red car until a string of accidents and mechanical failures left him vulnerable in the points standings. Hakkinen then overtook Michael in both the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix to claim a pair of wins and the pressure on Schumacher made him crack. After he won a very close Italian Grand Prix, he burst into tears during the regular FIA press conference. Michael was deeply affected by the death of a marshall in that race, and also the fact that he equalled Ayrton Senna's tally of race victories. He simply couldn't hold back that emotion whilst he felt the pressure of fighting for the championship.

Schumacher held his nerve in the final three races of 2000 and won all of them to realise his ambition of clinching the world title for Ferrari.

Not only did Michael break Ferrari's 21 year championship drought, but he opened the floodgates. Schumacher won the 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 championships as well. Only the 2003 championship was close with the others being decided with plenty of races to spare. Schumacher's crushing domination over a five year period is one of the reasons why so many rules to 'improve the show' have been introduced into F1 since.

A major rule change in 2005 hurt Ferrari (or more specifically it hurt Ferrari's tyre supplier, Bridgestone) and Schumacher managed just third place in the championship. The only event that Michael won that year was the six car US Grand Prix which had been boycott by all of the Michelin teams. 2006 was a lot better and Schumacher won seven races, but it still wasn't enough to beat Alonso to another championship.

Partway through 2006 Michael was unable to confirm to his bosses how long he would continue to race in F1. Ferrari's management then secured their own future by signing Kimi Raikkonen for 2007 and beyond. They gave Schumacher the option of staying on and fighting with Kimi (and pushing Felipe Massa out) or simply retiring altogether. Michael chose to retire but was apparently upset that he had been forced to make a decision either way.

Schumacher wanted to publicly announce his decision to retire at the end of 2006, but Ferrari refused his request and told Michael they would confirm the news at Monza. Michael wasn't pleased with this but duly obliged and got ready to tell the world his decision after the race had finished. As Michael made his way to the press conference during which he would reveal his future plans, Ferrari released their own statement with the official announcement. They beat him to it by just minutes, and this left a bitter taste in Schumacher's mouth. Not only did he feel pushed out at Ferrari, but he didn't get to announce the biggest decision of his career on his own terms.

With that in mind it's no wonder that Michael has no problem coming back to race in F1 with one of Ferrari's biggest rivals.

Schumacher tried making an F1 comeback in 2009 when Felipe Massa was injured, but he was unable to do so because of a recovering neck injury. He hadn't been looking for a race drive but the opportunity to return in a comfortable environment fell into his lap, and he felt obliged to help his old team. They are the same reasons that Michael is making a fulltime comeback with Mercedes in 2010.

Mercedes funded Schumacher's junior career, the team boss is his close friend Ross Brawn, and the team was in need of a big name after Jenson Button's shock departure. If it wasn't for those factors it is unlikely that Michael would have returned.

Schumacher's comeback is the biggest F1 story of the 2010 season and ticket sales around the world have already been boosted as a result. His return is exciting for F1 fans and it will be great to see if one of the greatest drivers of all time can recapture the form that took him to 7 world titles.

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