A Hurth karting prodigy who became a seven-time Formula One champion, won a record 91 Grands Prix with Benetton and Ferrari, and returned to Mercedes before retiring for good in 2012.
Schumacher raced in Formula One in two spells, from 1991 to 2006 and again from 2010 to 2012. He won seven world titles, and at retirement he also stood at the top of the lists for wins, poles and podiums.
Michael Schumacher, a German, raced in Formula One from 1991 to 2006 and returned for another spell from 2010 to 2012. He won a record seven world titles, held the records for wins, pole positions and podium finishes when he retired, and remains the record holder for fastest laps. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures the sport has produced.
Who was Michael Schumacher?
Schumacher was born on 3 January 1969 in Hurth, North Rhine-Westphalia, into a working-class household. His father, Rolf, worked as a bricklayer and later ran the local kart track, and his mother, Elisabeth, staffed the track's canteen. Schumacher's career began in karting and moved through the junior single-seater formulae before he reached Formula One.
Over that career he won seven Drivers' Championships, a total later matched by Lewis Hamilton. He retired in 2006, returned with Mercedes from 2010 to 2012, and then stepped away from the sport for good in 2012.
Seven titles, 91 wins and a comeback at Mercedes made Schumacher the benchmark that later drivers were measured against.
How did Schumacher start in karting?
When Schumacher was four, his father fitted a small motorcycle engine to his pedal kart. A crash into a lamp post in Kerpen led his parents to take him to the Kerpen-Horrem karting track, where he became the club's youngest member. His father built him a kart from discarded parts, and at six he won his first club championship.
Money was tight, and the family made sacrifices to keep him racing. His father took a second job renting and repairing karts, and local businessmen helped when a new engine was needed. Regulations required a driver to be 14 for a German licence, so he obtained one in Luxembourg at 12.
He joined the Adolf Neubert team in 1985 and won the direct-drive karting European Championship that year. By 1987 he was the German and European kart champion, and he left school to work as a mechanic.
How did Schumacher move up to single-seaters?
In 1988 he moved into car racing in the German Formula Ford and Formula Konig series, winning the latter. In 1989 he joined Willi Weber's WTS Formula Three team, and he won the German Formula Three Championship in 1990.
That season he also won the Macau Grand Prix in controversial circumstances. He finished second in the first heat behind Mika Hakkinen, and in the second heat he passed Hakkinen before a mistake allowed Hakkinen to attempt a pass. The two collided, and Schumacher drove on to victory without a rear wing.
In 1990 he also joined the Mercedes-Benz junior sportscar programme, which was unusual for a young driver. He won the season finale at Mexico City in a Sauber-Mercedes C11, finishing fifth in the championship despite driving in only three of the nine races. In 1991 he won again at the final race, at Autopolis in Japan, and finished fifth at Le Mans with Wendlinger and Kreutzpointner.
How did the Formula One debut come about?
Schumacher made his debut with the Irish Jordan team at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, driving car number 32 as a replacement for Bertrand Gachot, who had been imprisoned. He was still under contract to Mercedes, and Mercedes paid Jordan $150,000 for the debut.
He qualified seventh in the midfield Jordan 191, which matched the team's season-best grid position, and he outqualified teammate Andrea de Cesaris. His race ended on the first lap with clutch problems, but Benetton signed him for the rest of the season after a legal attempt by Jordan failed.
The 1991 season brought four points from six races, with a fifth place at the Italian Grand Prix as his best finish. He also outqualified the three-time champion Nelson Piquet four times in the final five races.
When did Schumacher win his first world title?
His first title came in 1994 with Benetton, when he won eight races. He won six of the first seven races, including a Brazilian Grand Prix in which he lapped the entire field. The season was marred by the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, and by allegations about driver aids that involved several teams.
At the British Grand Prix he was disqualified after he ignored a penalty for overtaking on the formation lap, and he was disqualified again after winning the Belgian Grand Prix over illegal skid block wear. The title was decided in the final race at Adelaide, where he and Damon Hill collided while Schumacher was leading. He became the first German to win the title.
In 1995 he defended the crown with nine wins from 17 races, which made him the youngest two-time champion in Formula One history at the time. He finished the season 33 points ahead of Hill, and he and Johnny Herbert gave Benetton its first Constructors' Championship.
How did the Ferrari years unfold?
Schumacher joined Ferrari for 1996 on a salary of $60 million over two years. Ferrari had last won the Drivers' title in 1979, and in 1997 he brought the Benetton designer Rory Byrne and technical director Ross Brawn with him. The early Ferrari seasons were marked by reliability problems, but he won three races in 1996 and finished third in the championship.
The 1997 title fight with Jacques Villeneuve ended at Jerez, where a collision on lap 48 ended Schumacher's own race and handed Villeneuve the title. He was disqualified from the championship after an FIA hearing. In 1998 he finished runner-up to Mika Hakkinen after a late-season battle, and in 1999 a brake failure at Stowe sent him into the barriers and broke his leg.
He returned in time for the final races, and he helped Eddie Irvine's title bid before Hakkinen won the championship. The first Ferrari title since 1979 came in 2000, when Schumacher beat Hakkinen in Japan after a season-long battle. He retained the title in 2001 with nine wins, and in 2002 he won 11 races and finished every race on the podium.
How did Schumacher build his records?
The sixth title came in 2003, when he beat Fangio's record of five. He won the seventh in 2004 with 13 wins from 18 races and 148 points, and he finished 34 points ahead of Barrichello. By 2006 he had won 91 Grands Prix, a record that stood until Lewis Hamilton overtook it.
He held most records in the sport by the time he first retired. These included 91 wins, 155 podiums, 68 pole positions and 77 fastest laps. He also won races in 15 consecutive seasons, a mark he shares with Hamilton.
Many of his wins came in wet races, and he earned the nickname Regenkonig, or Rain King. He was also known as the Red Baron, a reference to his red Ferrari and to the First World War pilot Manfred von Richthofen.
| Season | Team | Wins | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Benetton | 8 | World champion |
| 1995 | Benetton | 9 | World champion |
| 2001 | Ferrari | 9 | World champion |
| 2002 | Ferrari | 11 | World champion |
| 2004 | Ferrari | 13 | World champion |
| 2005 | Ferrari | 1 | Third in the championship |
| 2010 | Mercedes | 0 | Ninth, 72 points |
| 2012 | Mercedes | 0 | 13th in the championship |
Why did he leave Ferrari and return to Mercedes?
In 2006 Schumacher announced that he would retire at the end of the season, and Ferrari said he would continue working for the team. He acted as a Ferrari adviser during 2007, and in 2009 he prepared to replace the injured Felipe Massa, although a neck injury from a motorcycle accident ended that plan.
In December 2009 he announced his return with the new Mercedes GP team, partnered by Nico Rosberg. Mercedes had returned as a constructor for the first time since 1955, and Ross Brawn, who had worked with Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari, was team principal.
How did the Mercedes comeback go?
Sixth place in the 2010 Bahrain opener came 1,239 days after his previous start. He finished behind Rosberg in the first four qualifying sessions and races, and early critics suggested he was past it, although Damon Hill and others warned against writing him off.
Several incidents shaped the comeback. He was penalised 20 seconds for a safety car breach at Monaco and was demoted ten places for dangerous driving at Hungary. At Abu Dhabi he was involved in a first-lap accident. His strongest result in 2011 came in Canada, where he finished fourth after running as high as second.
The final podium arrived as a third place at the 2012 European round, reached at 43 years and 173 days. That made him the oldest driver to achieve a podium since 1970. He retired for the second time in October 2012, before the Japanese Grand Prix, and his final entry was the Brazilian Grand Prix that season.
What happened after his second retirement?
Schumacher married Corinna Betsch in August 1995, and the couple have two children, a daughter born in 1997 and a son born in 1999. He has always kept his private life away from the spotlight, and his family has asked for privacy about his condition since his accident.
In December 2013 he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps, and he was placed in an induced coma for six months. He received rehabilitation in Lausanne before being taken home for further treatment in September 2014. He has not appeared publicly since.
His contribution beyond racing has also been recognised. He was appointed a UNESCO Champion for Sport in 2002, supported road safety campaigns, and donated substantial sums to humanitarian causes, including $10 million after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
How is Schumacher's legacy assessed?
Schumacher is often described as the greatest driver of his era and one of the strongest in the sport's history. Commentators have pointed to his fitness regime and his ability to galvanise the teams around him. Andrea Stella, a Ferrari performance engineer in the 2000s, said his influence is felt in how Formula One plans, analyses and works.
His effect on German motorsport was also significant. When he first retired, three of the top ten drivers in the standings were German, and younger German drivers such as Sebastian Vettel have cited him as a key influence. He is also credited with turning Ferrari into the most successful team in the sport's history.
Honours followed through the years. He was voted Germany's greatest sportsperson of the 20th century in 2004, received the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award in 2002 and 2004, and was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame in 2017. The Nurburgring renamed turns nine and ten as the Schumacher S in 2007.
