World of Michael Schumacher1

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World of Michael Schumacher

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Michael Schumacher born January 3rd

, 1969

is a German Formula One racing driver for the

Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year

spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-timeWorld Champion and is widely regarded as one

of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He holds

many of the formula's driver records, including

most championships, race victories, fastest laps,

pole positions, points scored and most races

won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002 he

became the only driver in Formula One history

to finish in the top three in every race of a

season and then also broke the record for most

consecutive podium finishes. According to the

official Formula One website he is "statistically

the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".

After beginning with karting,

Schumacher won German drivers'

championships in Formula König and Formula

Three (3) before joining Mercedes in the World

Sportscar Championship. After one Mercedes-

funded race for the Jordan Formula One team

Schumacher signed as a driver for the Benetton

Formula One team in 1991. After winning

consecutive championships with Benetton in

1994/5, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996

and won another five consecutive drivers' titles

with them from 2000 – 2004. Schumacher retired

from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with

Ferrari as an advisor. Schumacher agreed to

return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as

cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, but

was prevented by a neck injury.

He later signed a 3-year contract to drive for

the new Mercedes GP team starting in 2010.

His career has not been without

controversy, including being 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.

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. Michael and his younger brother Ralf

Schumacher are the only brothers to win races

in Formula One, and they were the first

brothers to finish 1st and 2nd in the same race,

in Montreal in 2001, and there again (in

switched order) in 2003.




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There is no more demoralising outcome

to any sporting event than to come fourth. Just

to miss out on a podium spot and to see others

picking up the trophies and basking in the

limelight. And yet the fourth-place finish in Sao

Paolo that marked the end of the most

successful racing career ever in Formula One

did not actually come as a disappointment for

Michael Schumacher. Ever the realist, he had

already written off the tantalising prospect of an

eighth world title well before the grand finale of

2006. And ever the perfectionist too, he gave

his 250th and last Grand Prix everything he had

got, despite all the setbacks as the race

progressed. For his own personal pride, for his

team and for the sport he loves. Schumi‟s last

demonstration of his status as the best racing

driver in the world and the champion of the

millennium.

The man who made Formula One into

‟Formula Own‟ is adaptable in every sense of

the word. It is Michael Schumacher‟s keen

perception and apparently intuitive ability to

adapt instantly to changing conditions that set

him apart from every other racing driver of his

generation. Add to that his ability behind the

wheel, his indomitable will, his grasp of

technical issues plus his talent for motivating

the whole team and you have the most complete

four-wheeled maestro ever to have graced

Grand Prix racing. He has effectively redefined

what it means to be a professional driver. His

close rival Damon Hill, whom he first came upagainst in the championship battle

of 1994, was later to draw a parallel that was

latched onto by many commentators: "If I ever

need a heart bypass, then I hope I get the

Schumacher of surgery to perform the

operation, because you know you can rely on

someone like him." The legendary ‟Schumi

factor‟ was the sum of many individual talents.

He himself would never claim to be up on a

pedestal with Fangio or Senna, but he is

certainly on their level, if not one step higher.

Credit where credit is due. Niki Lauda

too is quick to pay his respects: "In the broader

picture of Michael Schumacher‟s career, it

doesn‟t make a great deal of difference whether

he adds another title to his tally." Even the

traditionally hostile British media honoured the

German for the manner of his departure and for

allowing deeds to speak louder than words.

Schumacher‟s fourth place in the Brazilian GP

may not stand out from a set of statistics that is

bulging with records - and yet it must count as

one of his greatest personal triumphs. Manager

Willi Weber, who is not normally known for

displays of emotion, said without any sense of

exaggeration: "Michael showed that he is the

greatest. He stole the show today. And he did

that without even winning the race."

The grandstand finish to his final

performance in autumn 2006 once again made

clear why Schumi was able to achieve what he

did in his career. He was writing his own

epilogue and retiring with dignity. Following

this dramatic final race, many experts wereasking whether it was possible that a man like




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him could quit after putting in such a fabulous

250th performance.

Apparently it was. In a relaxed mood,

the centre of attention goes on record as saying

that he is not sad about retiring: "Otherwise I

wouldn‟t have made the decision I did." He had

already known for some time that, following a

long holiday, he would be back in harness

doing a different job for Ferrari.

In everything he does, Michael

Schumacher‟s consistent obsession has been the

desire to avoid error. The only limiting factor

he has ever recognised has been ambition itself.

The few mistakes he has made were therefore

all the more painful. But it is only the

contradictions that complete the Schumacher

myth. Seen through the soft focus of history,

even the heavy-handed tactics against Damon

Hill and Jacques Villeneuve at Adelaide in1994 and Jerez in 1997 no longer seem quite so

brutal.

"I am not a legend," asserts the record

F1 title holder defensively. "I‟m just someone

who happens to be good at doing something he

enjoys." Figures over and above actual lap

times are of little interest to him: "Snatching a

victory out of a hopeless situation always gives

more satisfaction than any set of statistics could

ever do."

-1995 Benetton Renault-




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winning the latter.

In 1989, Schumacher signed with

“Willi Weber's” WTS Formula Three team.

Funded by Weber, he competed in the German

Formula 3 series, winning the title in 1990. He

won also the Macau Grand Prix. 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. In

the 1990 World Sportscar Championship

season, Schumacher won the season finale at

the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in a

Sauber – Mercedes C11, and finished fifth in the

drivers' championship despite only driving in 3

of the 9 races. He continued with the team inthe 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.

The Beginning

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, his

parents were unable to afford it; Michael was

able to continue racing with 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 GermanFormula Ford and Formula Köni series,




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Formula One Career

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.

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 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 season the Sauber

team, planning their Formula One debut withMercedes 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.

In the "conventional" Benetton B192

Schumacher took his place on the podium for the

first time, finishing third in the Mexican Grand

Prix. He went on to take his first victory at the

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 1993 season.

Schumacher won one race, the Portuguese Grand

Prix where he beat Prost, and had nine podium

finishes.




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LIST OF AWARDS MICHAEL SCHUMACHER(1992-2010)

1992: ADAC Motorsports Personality of the Year

1993: Golden Steering Wheel Award (Bild am Sonntag newspaper)

1993: Bambi

1994: AvD Sports Award

1994: Golden 1 (ARD Sports Gala)

1995: German Sports Personality of the Year

1995: Golden Camera Award (Hörzu magazine)

1995: Golden 1

1997: Silver Laurel Award

1997: Golden Lion Award(RTL)

2001: World Sport Award

2001: Freedom of the City of Modena

2001: European Sports Personality of the Year

2001: 'Champion of Champions' (L'Equipe)

2002: World Sports Personality of the Year

2002: 'Champion of Sports' (Unesco)


2003: Honorary Ambassador for the Republic of San Marino



2004: World Sports Personality of the Year

2004: German Sports Personality of the Year


2004: Sports Personality of the Century (ZDF)

2006: Freedom of the City of Maranello

2007: Prince of Asturias Award for Sport

2007: German TV Prize in the Special Awards Category

2010: Knighthood in the Legion of Honour

2010: GQ Sportsman of the Year




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