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Murray Walker "Michael Schumacher is the greatest of all time, not just because of the numbers but because he voluntarily left a team he could have won more championships to bring Ferrari back"

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157 votes, 165 comments. 1.2m members in the formula1 community. The best independent Formula 1 community anywhere. News, stories and discussion ...

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Michael Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion F1 driver and tops the list of most Grand Prix wins in the history of Formula One. His career statistics - including an astonishing 91 wins - are so incredible they will probably never be beaten.
Early years
Schumacher was born on January 3, 1969 to Rolf and Elisabeth Schumacher. The family became involved with karting. Michael, only four at the time, was given a kart powered by an old lawn-mower engine by his father. A World Champion's career was launched from this humble beginning.

Schumacher's talents were noted by his parents, but they did not have the financial means to support them. Instead, they had to rely upon the generosity and sponsorship of a few affluent people who also saw the potential of their son.

Schumacher has won numerous German and European kart championships since 1984, including the Formula Koenig Series. By 1987 he was the German and European kart champion, at which point he withdrew from school and began working as a mechanic.
Formula One career. Debut.
Schumacher is credited with popularising Formula One in Germany, where it was considered a fringe sport. In 2006, three of the top ten drivers were German, more than any other nationality and more than has ever been present in Formula One history.

Schumacher made his Formula One debut with the Jordan-Ford team at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix as a replacement for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot. At that time Schumacher was still a contracted Mercedes driver. He impressed the paddock by qualifying seventh in his first competition in a Formula One car, matching the team's season-best grid position, and out-qualifying his team mates.

After his debut, he was signed by Benetton-Ford for the following race. Schumacher became known as an up-and-coming driver in F1 as he claimed his maiden victory in the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which would become his favourite track. Schumacher won his first Drivers' World Championship in 1994.
Ferrari years
In 1996, Schumacher signed with Ferrari, then considered technologically and organisationally inferior to front running teams such as Benetton and Williams. Ferrari had not won the Drivers' Championship since 1979. The poor performance of the Ferrari pit crews was considered a running joke. Schumacher is often credited along with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Jean Todt with turning this once struggling team into the most successful team in Formula One history. The transformation of the Ferrari team was Schumacher's greatest feat.
Awards
Michael Schumacher won the coveted Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award in 2002 and 2004 for his outstanding performance in the 2001 and 2003 seasons respectively. In its 7-year history, no-one has been nominated more times than Schumacher, who also received nominations for the 2001, 2003 and 2005 awards.
Family and off-track life
Schumacher married Corinna Betsch in August 1995. They have two children, Gina-Maria (born in 1997) and Mick (born in 1999). The family, as of 2006, lives in Gland, Switzerland, near Lake Geneva. Schumacher has always been very protective of his private life and is known to dislike the celebrity spotlight, preferring a simple life.

Schumacher is the world's first billionaire athlete. His annual salary is reported to be around $80 million in 2004. In the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100, the list of "The World's Most Powerful Celebrities", he was ranked 17th. A big share of his income comes from advertising.

Schumacher had to learn how to deal with the press professionally, attend courses in rhetoric and conduct interviews in English.
Retirement
While 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 in the post-race press conference. The press release also stated that Schumacher would continue working for Ferrari.

Schumacher went down in history as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport.
Injury
In December 2013, Schumacher suffered a serious head injury while skiing. He was airlifted to a hospital and placed in a medically induced coma, having suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was in the coma from 29 December 2013 until 16 June 2014. He left the hospital in Grenoble for further rehabilitation at the University Hospital (CHUV) in Lausanne. On 9 September 2014, Schumacher was brought back to his home for further rehabilitation. In November 2014, Schumacher was reported to be paralyzed and wheelchair-bound as a result of the accident.

December 29, 2018, marked five years since the most successful Formula One driver in history fell and hit his head while skiing in Meribel, in the French Alps.

But Schumacher's wife Corinna, whom he married in 1995, has insisted on secrecy over his condition, a request that has been faithfully observed by all around them. Friends don't talk. If they do, they are no longer friends.

On January 2, 2019 though, Michael Schumacher's family made a rare statement for his 50th birthday.

They said "we are doing everything humanly possible to help him", ahead of the racing legend's 50th birthday.

In a post on Facebook, they wrote: "Michael can be proud of what he has achieved, and so are we! That's why we remember his successes with the Michael Schumacher Private Collection exhibition in Cologne, by publishing memories in social media and by continuing his charitable work through the Keep Fighting Foundation. We want to remember and celebrate his victories, his records and his jubilation.

"You can be sure that he is in the very best of hands and that we are doing everything humanly possible to help him. Please understand if we are following Michael's wishes and keeping such a sensitive subject as health, as it has always been, in privacy. At the same time we say thank you very much for your friendship and wish you a healthy and happy year 2019."

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Michael Schumacher - 7-time World Champion F1 Driver - German Culture

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Michael Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion F1 driver and tops the list of most Grand Prix wins in the history of Formula One. His career statistics - including an astonishing 91 wins - are so incredible they will probably never be beaten. Early years Schumacher was born on January 3, 1969 to Rolf and Elisabeth Schumacher.

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Formula 1 real all time points comparison

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Compare drivers over different points scoring systems past and present. All time records. Compare based on absolute points, average points, wins, podium achievements for careers and seasons.

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Formula 1 Drivers - Greatest of All Times (1950-2019)

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about Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher (German pronunciation: [?m?ça??l ??u?max?] ( listen); born 3 January 1969) is a retired German racing driver who raced in Formula One for Jordan Grand Prix, Benetton and Ferrari, where he spent the majority of his career, as well as for Mercedes upon his return to the sport. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers ever, and regarded by some as the greatest of all time, Schumacher is the only driver in history to win seven Formula One World Championships, five of which he won consecutively. The most successful driver in the history of the sport, Schumacher holds the records for the most World Championship titles (7), the most Grand Prix wins (91), the most fastest laps (77) and the most races won in a single season (13), and according to the official Formula One website, Schumacher is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".

After success in karting as a child, Schumacher won titles in Formula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship. In 1991, his Mercedes-funded race debut for the Jordan Formula One team resulted in Schumacher being signed by Benetton for the rest of that season. He finished third in 1992 and fourth in 1993, before becoming the first German World Drivers' Champion in 1994 by one point over Damon Hill. In 1995 he repeated the success, this time with a greater margin. In 1996, Schumacher moved to Ferrari, who had last won the Driver's Championship in 1979, and helped them transform into the most successful team in Formula One history, as he came close to winning the 1997 and 1998 titles, before breaking his leg at the 1999 British Grand Prix, ending another title run.

Schumacher won five consecutive drivers' titles from 2000 to 2004, including an unprecedented sixth and seventh title. In 2002, Schumacher won the title with a record six races remaining and finished on the podium in every race. In 2004, Schumacher won twelve out of the first thirteen races and went on to win a record 13 times as he won his final title. Schumacher retired from Formula One in 2006, after finishing runner-up to Renault's Fernando Alonso. Schumacher returned to Formula One in 2010 with Mercedes. He produced the fastest qualifying time at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix, and achieved his only podium on his return at the 2012 European Grand Prix, where he finished third. In October 2012, Schumacher announced he would retire for a second time at the end of the season.

His career was not without controversy, as he was twice involved in collisions in the final race of a season that determined the outcome of the World Championship, with Damon Hill in 1994 in Adelaide, and with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 in Jerez. Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO and has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life, donating tens of millions of dollars to charity. Schumacher and his younger brother, Ralf, are the only siblings to win races in Formula One, and they were the first brothers to finish 1st and 2nd in the same race, a feat they repeated in four subsequent races.

In December 2013, Schumacher suffered a traumatic brain injury in a skiing accident. He was placed in a medically induced coma for six months until 16 June 2014. He left the hospital in Grenoble for further rehabilitation at the University Hospital of Lausanne. On 9 September 2014, Schumacher was relocated to his home where he continues to receive medical treatment and rehabilitation privately.

source: Wikipedia

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Michael Schumacher - Formula 1 Statistics

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about Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (German pronunciation: [?m?ça??l ??u?max?] ( listen); born 3 January 1969) is a retired German racing driver who raced in Formula One for Jordan Grand Prix, Benetton and Ferrari, where he spent the majority of his career, as well as for Mercedes upon his return to the sport.

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Formula One (F1) is the highest class of open-wheeled motor racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. The F1 World Championship season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. Each winner is presented with a trophy and the results of each race are combined to determine two annual Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors. The World Championship for Drivers is held since 1950, after the Formula One standard was agreed upon in 1946. The Constructors' Championship was added for the 1958 season and has been awarded ever since.

Lewis Hamilton holds the record for the most race wins in Formula One history, with 93 wins to date. Michael Schumacher, the previous record holder, is second with 91 wins, and Sebastian Vettel is third with 53 victories. Kimi Räikkönen holds the distinction of having the longest time between his first win and his last. He won his first Grand Prix at the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix, and his last (to date) at the 2018 United States Grand Prix, a span of 15 years and 212 days. Riccardo Patrese holds the record for the longest period of time between two race wins-more than six-and-a-half years between the 1983 South African Grand Prix and the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix. Mario Andretti had to wait the longest time between his maiden victory at the 1971 South African Grand Prix and his second win-coming five years, seven months and 18 days later at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel holds the record for the most consecutive wins, having won nine Grands Prix in a row from the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix to the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen is the youngest winner of a Grand Prix; he was 18 years and 228 days old when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Luigi Fagioli is the oldest winner of a Formula One Grand Prix; he was 53 years and 22 days old when he won the 1951 French Grand Prix.

As of the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, out of the 765 drivers who started a Grand Prix, there have been 109 Formula One Grand Prix winners. The first Grand Prix winner was Giuseppe Farina at the 1950 British Grand Prix, and the most recent driver to score their first Grand Prix win is Pierre Gasly who took his first win at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. Three Grands Prix, the 1951 French, the 1956 Argentine and the 1957 British Grand Prix, were won by two drivers sharing a car.

This list includes the winners of the Indianapolis 500 race between 1950 and 1960, as they formed part of the World Championships, even though they were not run by Formula One regulations, nor are they referred to as Grands Prix.

All figures correct as of the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

All figures correct as of the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

All figures correct as of the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

* Season still in progress.

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Formula One (F1) is the highest class of open-wheeled motor racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform.

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When Michael Schumacher crossed the finishing line first at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, we knew we had seen one of the last victories of a tremendous career. Just two rounds of the season remained, and Schumacher had already announced he would leave F1 at the end of the year.

His eventual return to F1 with Mercedes, who were engine suppliers to McLaren at the time, was not on the cards. Few would have expected it, and surely none would have thought the driver who had dominated much of the previous decade would come back to F1 for three years without winning another race.

So that superb win in tricky conditions at Shanghai proved Schumacher's swansong victory. He signed off his 2006 campaign with an astonishing tally of 91 wins, a figure which hadn't changed when he left F1 for good six years later.

Schumacher didn't just break the previous record for most Formula 1 wins, he smashed it. He reached Alain Prost's benchmark of 51 wins, which had stood since 1993, in 2001. By the time he was done with F1, Schumacher had added two score victories to it.

Even with the F1 calendar steadily growing in size, it would surely be a long time before anyone would approach Schumacher's 91 wins. As it turned out, Schumacher's record may ultimately fall to a driver who made his debut in the race which followed his 2006 exit from Ferrari.

It was obvious from the first corner of the first race of Lewis Hamilton's F1 career that he was a special talent. Fernando Alonso, who had just denied Schumacher a title-winning end to his Ferrari career, saw his new team mate sweep audaciously around the outside of him at the start of the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton did not win that race, but within just six rounds he found his way to the top of the podium. He has won at least one race every season since.

That Schumacher and Hamilton are two of the greatest talents motor racing has ever seen is beyond question. But what allowed them to ascend these heights and win, at the time of writing, 13 world championships and 175 races between them?

The cars

Of course neither would have enjoyed such success without consistently competitive machinery at their disposal. Predictably, a common criticism levelled at both is that they wouldn't have won so many races without such strong cars. But drivers do not get race-winning equipment for year after year by accident.

Hamilton is unusual in that he had a potentially championship-winning car in his very first season. With better luck and/or judgement in the final two races of 2007, he might even have been world champion in his rookie season.

Like most drivers, Schumacher did not start his career in a front-running team. Following a one-off drive for Jordan he joined Benetton - race-winners in 1989, 1990 and 1991 - and scored their only win of 1992 in his first full season. He followed that up with another in 1993, and the team took advantage of extensive changes to the rules in 1994 to make a major step forward. Schumacher won eight races and took the title along with it.

As the final three seasons of Schumacher's career demonstrated, a great driver cannot necessarily win races in an average car. But while Schumacher's return to F1 was win-less his 2012 team mate Nico Rosberg managed to win a race in the Mercedes W03. And Schumacher could have won in Monaco that year: He would have started on pole position had he not incurred a grid penalty for crashing into Bruno Senna at the previous race.

Whether Hamilton will have to endure uncompetitive equipment later in his career remains to be seen. But he did seize two chances to win races in McLaren's unfancied MP4-24 of 2009. And four years later, after replacing Schumacher at Mercedes, he took a single win in Mercedes' W04. Rosberg won twice, though that wouldn't have been the case had Hamilton not suffered a puncture while leading at Silverstone.

Schumacher and Hamilton exemplify how great drivers can snatch opportunities for wins in sub-standard cars, and win prolifically when they have top-quality equipment. Schumacher's Ferraris of 2000-04 and Hamilton's Mercedes since 2014 are obvious cases of the latter, where the pair scored the bulk of their huge win tallies.

But there are two other important dimensions to take into account when considering the relative successes of these two great drivers.

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The competition

Schumacher's rapid rise coincided with the departures of several other champions and prolific race winners. Alain Prost retired after 1993, Nelson Piquet - Schumacher's team mate for a handful of races in 1991 - stepped before then, and Ayrton Senna was tragically killed in the third race of 1994. Nigel Mansell briefly returned from IndyCar racing to fill the void left by Senna, but his attempt at a full-time return in 1995 proved a failure.

Hamilton, of course, arrived on the scene immediately after Schumacher's first retirement. At that point two other drivers were widely expected to assume the Schumacher mantle as the sport's leading driver: his replacement Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso (who, like Schumacher before him, had switched teams immediately after winning his second title). Compared to Schumacher's 91 wins, Alonso and Raikkonen had 15 and nine respectively.

That they didn't achieve Schumacher's levels of success was only partly due to the rise of Hamilton. It was also because of the emergence of another major talent who went on to win multiple championships: Sebastian Vettel.

By the time Red Bull's prodigy had won his fourth world championship in 2013, sealed with a record-breaking run of nine consecutive race wins, the 26-year-old Vettel had amassed 39 victories - 17 more than Hamilton at that point - and seemed the likeliest threat to Schumacher's record. It would be an appropriate achievement for the driver referred to by some as 'Baby Schumi', who had cut his teeth on the same Kerpen kart track as his idol.

But the V6 hybrid turbo era hasn't been as kind to Vettel, even after he succeeded Alonso as the latest driver to fill the Ferrari seat once occupied by Schumacher. Hamilton, of course, has enjoyed sustained success at the wheel of Mercedes' mighty cars. He has won the most races of any driver every year and only missed out on the title once, to team mate Rosberg, due to a combination of unreliability and a few too many sub-par starts. While doing so, he has propelled himself within touching distance of Schumacher's wins record.

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The team mates

The other dimension which explains the relative success of Hamilton and Schumacher is the quality of competition they faced within their own teams - always a contentious point. It is hard to imagine any of Schumacher's team mates taking a title from him in the way Rosberg did to Hamilton, not just because of Schumacher's superiority, but because his team mates were required to play a supporting role to him.

This has generally not been the case at Mercedes for Hamilton and his team mates. Indeed, between 2014 and 2016 Hamilton's only real rival for the title was his own team mate. Since Rosberg's departure, Valtteri Bottas has often been allowed to challenge Hamilton for wins. The notable exception was in late 2018 where Bottas was required to surrender victory in Russia to help ensure Hamilton beat Vettel to the title.

Such tactics were more commonplace in Schumacher-era Benetton and Ferrari. One of the most notorious examples occured at the A1 Ring (now known as the Red Bull Ring). During the 2001 race Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher's team mate during the peak of his successes, was running second behind McLaren's David Coulthard when Ferrari ordered him to let Schumacher by into second.

"After the race I went to talk to them and I said 'what would have happened if I was leading the race?'," Barrichello recalled in an interview for the official F1 website last year. "They said if you were leading the race, we would never ask you that." But one year later when Barrichello was leading the same race he again got the call to let Schumacher by.

Barrichello reminded the team what they had said one year earlier. "'You guys told me that, in my face' - they said 'oh Rubens we can talk later'." After eight laps of wrangling, Barrichello let Schumacher through for his 56th career win. Three races later, Ferrari made a show of not ordering Barrichello to let Schumacher by when he led his team mate to the flag at the Nurburgring.

According to Barrichello, Schumacher's preferential treatment behind the scenes was less overt. Although he accepted his pit strategy would usually be the "B option" compared to Schumacher's, Barrichello stressed the pair usually received equal equipment. He even cast doubt on how far Schumacher understood he was the team's preferred driver.

"He was a bit naive in the way that he worked," said Barrichello. "So many times I grabbed my chair because a meeting was already finished. And then they started another meeting with just Michael there. And I said 'hmm, this is funny'. I took my chair and I would just sit there, say nothing and just stay there."

Mercedes insists it is more open with its drivers. The fact Rosberg beat Hamilton to the 2016 title is surely proof of that. Team principal Toto Wolff says their approach won't change even as Hamilton is on the brink of reaching Schumacher's record tallies of wins and championships.

"We have been always very neutral to the drivers," said Wolff. "We want to provide them with equal equipment and equal opportunity and both know that there is no hidden agenda within Mercedes, no politics.

"I think we will see how they get out of the blocks and end up. I hope that Valtteri will have another great season but equally I obviously cheer for Lewis, giving it his best as a seventh title to equal Michael's record."

How far will Hamilton go - and who will catch him?

Hamilton hasn't racked up his wins at quite the same rate as Schumacher. His most recent win at Yas Marina last month came in his 250th race start; Schumacher's 84th win came in the notorious six-car race at Indianapolis in 2005. However the long win-less coda to Schumacher's career leaves his final strike rate of 91 wins from 306 starts a realistic goal for Hamilton.

If Hamilton reaches that, the question then becomes how much further is he prepares to go? Will he race on in pursuit of a century wins and face down the rising threat from new-generation talents like Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc?

It may be not Hamilton's rivals which slow his winning rate but F1's desire to level the playing field and dilute the kind of dominance Mercedes have enjoyed in recent years. But if that happens, it may also make it much harder for future drivers to achieve the kind of staggering win tallies Schumacher and Hamilton have amassed.

2020 F1 season
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How Schumacher set a record 91 F1 wins - and Hamilton drew within striking distance · RaceFans

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When Michael Schumacher crossed the finishing line first at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, we knew we had seen one of the last victories of a tremendous career. Just two rounds of the season remained, and Schumacher had already announced he would leave F1 at the end of the year.

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Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. The Formula One World Championship season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. The World Drivers' Championship is presented by the FIA to the most successful Formula One driver over the course of the season through a points system based on individual Grand Prix results. The World Championship is won when it is no longer mathematically possible for another competitor to overtake their points total regardless of the outcome of the remaining races, although it is not officially awarded until the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony held in various cities following the conclusion of the season.

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton hold the record for the most World Drivers' Championships, both having won the title on seven occasions. Juan Manuel Fangio is third with five titles. Schumacher also holds the record for the most consecutive drivers' titles with five between the 2000 and the 2004 seasons. Nigel Mansell holds the record of competing in the highest number of seasons before winning the World Championship, entering Formula One in 1980 and achieving the title in 1992, a span of 13 seasons. Nico Rosberg has the highest number of Grand Prix starts before winning his first title, a period of 206 Grands Prix between the 2006 Bahrain and the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel is the youngest winner of the World Drivers' Championship; he was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the 2010 championship. Fangio is the oldest winner of the World Drivers' Championship; he was 46 years and 41 days old when he won the 1957 title.

As of the 2023 season, out of the 775 drivers who have started a Formula One Grand Prix, the 73 titles awarded have been won by a total of 34 different drivers. The first Formula One World Drivers' Champion was Giuseppe Farina in the 1950 championship and the current title holder is Max Verstappen in the 2023 season. The title has been won by drivers from the United Kingdom 20 times between 10 drivers, more than any other nation, followed by Brazil, Finland and Germany with three drivers each. The title has been won by drivers from Scuderia Ferrari 15 times between 9 drivers, more than any other team, followed by McLaren with 12 titles between 7 drivers. The Drivers' Championship has been won in the final race of the season 30 times in the 72 seasons it has been awarded. Schumacher holds the record of earning the championship with most Grands Prix left to run in a season with six when he won the 2002 title at that year's French Grand Prix. Due to the points system, on two occasions ( John Surtees in the 1964 season and Ayrton Senna in the 1988 season) a world champion scored fewer points overall than a driver who finished second in the championship.

Michael Schumacher has won the World Drivers' Championship a record seven times - twice with Benetton and five times with Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton equaled Schumacher's record in 2020, winning one with McLaren and six with Mercedes.

Juan Manuel Fangio won the World Drivers' Championship five times with Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes and Ferrari. He held the record from 1955 until 2003.

Alain Prost has four titles, three for McLaren and one for Williams. He also just missed winning the title for Renault (finished second, by two points) and for Ferrari (finished second, by seven points).

Sebastian Vettel has four titles to his name, all of which he won consecutively with Red Bull Racing.

Max Verstappen won three consecutive World Drivers' Championships in 2021, 2022 and 2023 with Red Bull Racing.

Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

By driver nationality

Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

Youngest Drivers' Champion

Where drivers have won more than one World Drivers' Championship, only their first win is noted here. Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

Oldest Drivers' Champion

Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

Consecutive Drivers' Championships

A total of 11 drivers have achieved consecutive wins in the World Drivers' Championship. Of those, only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won two sets of consecutive Formula One Drivers' Championships.

Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

Drivers' Champions for constructors that did not win the Constructors' Championship in that year

Drivers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

By chassis constructor

Constructors in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

By engine manufacturer

Engine manufacturers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

By tyres used

Tyre manufacturers in bold have competed in the 2024 World Championship.

Numbers in parentheses indicate championships won as the sole tyre supplier.

References

External links

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List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions - Wikipedia

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Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform.

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Michael Schumacher and Ferrari : The Era of Dominance(2000-2004)

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Schumacher becomes World Champion at Suzuka, 2000 Japanese GP In 2000, it was 21 years since Jody Sheckter won the Driver's World Cham...

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The most extraordinary driver's origins were most ordinary. He was born on 3 January, 1969, near Cologne, Germany, six years before his brother Ralf, who would also become a Formula One driver of note. Their father, a bricklayer, ran the local kart track, at Kerpen, where Mrs Schumacher operated the canteen. As a four-year old Michael enjoyed playing on a pedal kart, though when his father fitted it with a small motorcycle engine the future superstar promptly crashed into a lamppost. But Michael quickly mastered his machine and won his first kart championship at six, following which his far from affluent parents arranged sponsorship from wealthy enthusiasts that enabled Michael to make rapid progress. By 1987 he was German and European kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice car mechanic, a job that was soon replaced by full-time employment as a race driver. In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sportscars. The next year he made a stunning Formula One debut, qualifying an astonishing seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, whereupon he was immediately snapped up by Benetton, with whom in 1992 he won his first F1 race, again at Spa, among the most demanding circuits of them all.

Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. His first, in 1994, was somewhat tainted in that Benetton was suspected of technical irregularities and in their championship showdown race in Adelaide Schumacher collided (deliberately, some thought) with the car of his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill. But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. The Schumacher-Ferrari combination began promisingly with three wins in 1996 and five more in 1997, though that season ended in humiliation when in the final race, at Jerez in Spain, Schumacher tried unsuccessfully to ram the Williams of his title rival Jacques Villeneuve off the road. As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's points and his second place in the championship were stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite.

After finishing second overall in 1998, Schumacher's 1999 season was interrupted by a broken leg (the only injury in his career) incurred in a crash at the British Grand Prix. From then on there was no stopping 'Schumi' - who in 2000 became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years, then went on to win the driving title for the next four years in succession. In 2002 he won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races. In 2003 he broke Fangio's record by winning his sixth driving title. In 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races to win his seventh championship by a by a massive margin.

Like all the great drivers Schumacher had exceptional ambition, confidence, intelligence, motivation, dedication and determination. What set him apart and helped account for his unprecedented length of time at the top was a pure passion for racing and an endless quest for improvement.

Blessed with a supreme natural talent honed to the highest degree, he had a racing brain to match and spare mental capacity that enabled him to make split-second decisions, adapt to changing circumstances and plan ahead while driving on the limit, which with his superb state of fitness (he trained harder than any driver) he could do consistently for lengthy periods of time. The smoothly swift and mechanically-aware driver operated with a keen sensitivity for the limits of his car and himself (he seldom made mistakes) and his feedback to the engineers (led by technical director Ross Brawn who worked with him throughout his career) was invariably astute.

No Ferrari driver worked harder for the team, nor were any of them more appreciated than the German who led the Italian team to six successive Constructors' Championships. He led by example, frequently visiting the factory at Maranello, talking to the personnel, thanking them, encouraging them, never criticising and inspiring everyone with his optimism, high energy level and huge work ethic. The team was devoted to the driver who often said he loved the Ferrari 'family.'

Life with his own family - wife Corinna and their children Gina-Maria and Mick - was deliberately kept as normal as possible (they seldom came to the races) by the essentially shy and private man who became one of the most famous sportsmen in the world. Rich beyond his wildest dreams (he reportedly earned as much as $100 million a year), he generously supported charities, especially those for underprivileged children, and to help victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster he made a personal donation of $10 million.

After finishing second in the 2006 championship, the aging superstar was still at the peak of his powers, having won seven races to bring his total to 91 (40 more than his nearest rival, Alain Prost.) No champion had been so superior for so long, but Schumi had grown tired of the effort required to continue to excel and decided to hang up his helmet.

Yet his retirement proved to be only temporary. In 2010, after a three-year hiatus as a consultant to Ferrari, 41-year-old Michael Schumacher succumbed to the lure of driving for the new Mercedes team headed by Ross Brawn. Critics questioned the multiple champion's decision to risk his reputation in the sport that was once his personal playground. He gave his best but made it to the podium only once during his three-year comeback. In his final season of 2012 his opponents included five other world champions - all of them at least a decade younger. "I enjoyed most of it," Michael Schumacher said of the second part of his career. "It wasn't as successful as before but I still learned a lot for life. I found that losing can be both more difficult and more instructive than winning. Now is a good time to go."

In the cruelest of ironies, after surviving so many seasons in his dangerous profession, Michael Schumacher's first year in permanent retirement ended with him suffering a very serious head injury incurred when he fell while on a family skiing holiday. Following the accident that left him in a coma for several months his family brought him home where he faced a lengthy period of rehabilitation. If the power of public opinion could help his recovery it came in the form of a tremendous outpouring of messages of hope, support and encouragement for the sport's most successful driver.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

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Since the Formula One World Drivers' Championship began in 1950 the title has been won by 32 different drivers, 15 of whom won more than one championship. Of the multiple champions the most prolific was Juan Manuel Fangio, whose record of five titles stood for five decades until it was eclipsed by the most successful driver in the sport's history.