A Biography

On the 3rd of January 1969, Rolf and Elisabeth Schumacher became the proud parents of a baby boy, Michael. Little did they know at the time what lay ahead for the Schumacher family.

When Michael was four, he was given a pedal kart. His father, Rolf decided to install an old motorcycle engine in the kart for some more speed for his son. Michael enjoyed driving the now faster kart, but unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out) he collided with a lamp post. This lead to the decision that Michael would be far safer driving on the local kart track at Kerpen-Horrem (as there were no lamp posts to hit!)

At the age of four he was the youngest member and driver at the kart club. When Michael was five, Rolf built him the 'cheapest go-kart ever built,' made from second-hand equipment which others had discarded. He was probably still using this kart when he won the club championship for the first time at the age of six. This was despite his rivals being older and generally having better equipment.

Although karting is comparatively cheap, it does still cost money. Rolf soon realised that his son's karting career was costing more money than he could afford, and eventually Michael was faced with the prospect of the end to his karting career, despite his obvious talent. However, this talent led local business people, as well as friends of the family, to sponsor him, allowing him to continue.

Jurgen Dilk helped Michael when he was ten by buying him a new kart, and realising the driving ability that Michael had, continued to support him, only asking for the trophies that Michael won in return. He also helped to find other sponsors for Michael.

Michael had a successful time karting in the mid-eighties. In 1984 he was German Junior Champion, repeating the feat in 1985 as well as finishing runner-up in the Junior World Championship. In 1986 he finished third in the German Senior and European Senior Championships, while in 1987 he won both the German Senior and European Senior Championships.

Although karting was a large part of Michael's childhood, he did go to school just like every other child. He showed ability in several subjects, including mathematics and English, as well as sports such as judo and soccer. When Michael was eleven, he had the choice between taking part in a go-kart race or a judo competition. Choosing the latter, he came third and immediately realised he had made the wrong choice. However, racing was only a hobby.

After completing his schooling, Michael took up an apprenticeship as a mechanic at a local garage. At worst, he would have some qualifications if his driving career failed. Actually, the apprenticeship helped him greatly, as it helped him to understand better how a car worked. Michael changed garages after one year of his apprenticeship, working at Willy Bergmeister's garage; Willy was a racer too. He completed his apprenticeship early while working at Willy's garage.

In 1988, with sponsorship help from Jurgen Dilk, Michael took his first step from karting into single seaters, that being Formula König. Although the cars have a small engine, the cars have adjustable wings, making them the first step in single-seaters. Michael won nine of the ten rounds, finishing second in the other to become the clear champion at season's end. At the same time, he also competed in the German Formula Ford series, finishing sixth overall, as well as the European Formula Ford series, finishing second overall. In fact, the European Formula Ford Champion in 1988 was Mika Salo, a future Formula One competitor.

In 1989, Michael moved up to German Formula Three, driving for WTS. WTS was Michael's introduction to Willi Weber, who has been a part of Michael's career ever since. Michael was in contention for the championship throughout the season, the two other contenders being the Austrian Karl Wendlinger and fellow German Heinz-Harald Frentzen. With one round remaining, Karl led the championship, needing a very poor result to let either Michael or Heinz-Harald through to win the championship. Despite finishing fourteenth in the final round, Karl won the championship, beating both Michael and Heinz-Harald by an agonising one point.

Michael went to Macau in 1989, winning the first heat after a first-corner crash involving several cars. He again lead the second heat but retired with mechanical problems.

In 1990, Michael returned to German Formula 3, winning the championship despite not finishing in either of the first two rounds of it. More importantly, he formed part of the new Mercedes Junior Team (along with Karl and Heinz-Harald) in the World Sports-Prototype Championship. Driving the Group C cars was not easy, with turbocharged 5-litre V8 engines producing 700hp, but this taught the drivers how to conserve tyres and fuel as tyres could be trashed easily with 700hp under the right foot, as well as having to make too many pitstops if excessive amounts of fuel was used. The 'junior' drivers did well, with Michael winning the final round with co-driver Jochen Mass in Mexico City despite his dislike for the notoriously dangerous circuit.

Michael returned to Macau in 1990, taking second position on the grid behind Mika Häkkinen. Mika won the first heat, Michael finishing second,and Mika again took the early lead in the second. However, Michael passed Mika, although Mika trailed close behind, close enough for the overall win as it was based on aggregate time. Mika made a lunge for the lead on the final lap, which Michael resisted, resulting in Mika's exit from the race. Michael went on to win the heat and the race overall, despite having to complete the remainder of the final lap without a rear wing after his altercation with Mika.

In 1991, Michael again drove for Mercedes in the World Sports- Prototype Championship, teaming up with Karl Wendlinger. However, the Mercedes was outclassed for most of the year, with poor reliability and lack of speed causing the greatest problems. Michael again won the last round of the season, this time at Autopolis. By the time he won at Autopolis though, he had competed in five Formula One Grand Prix, one for Jordan and four for Benetton, as well as one Formula 3000 race in Japan.

Michael made a spectacular debut in Formula One. Having driven a Formula One car for the first time on the Tuesday before the race, his qualifying position of seventh was remarkable. It was even more remarkable if you consider it was the first time he had visited the track! Although he retired in the race on lap one with a clutch problem, he had made a significant impression on the Formula One circus. So much so, that by the next race he was now driving for Benetton.

Many discussions took place between Spa and the next race, which was at Monza over where Michael would be driving for the rest of the 1991 season and subsequent seasons, with both Jordan and Benetton claiming that he would be driving for them. Eventually things were sorted in Benetton's favour, with Michael signed up for the remainder of 1991 and several subsequent seasons. Again he impressed, outqualifying triple World Champion Nelson Piquet, and scoring his first points as he finished fifth. A couple of sixth places topped off the remainder of the season.

1992 was a learning year - learning to cope with a new team mate, learning to drive new circuits, and learning to cope with new expectations from others in terms of results. He learned well, and managed to score a podium finish in only his eighth race, as well as a front row grid position in only his tenth race, only Nigel Mansell's dominant Williams-Renault faster. He was involved in an incident with Ayrton Senna during a test at Hockenheim just before the German Grand Prix. A misunderstanding occurred between them on the track, leading to Michael brake-testing Senna. Ayrton apparently didn't like this too much and grabbed Michael by the throat when he returned to the pits in front of a group of journalists. McLaren mechanics prised Senna off, with Michael saying that maybe Ayrton wanted to give his neck a massage! Michael's first win in Formula One came in only his eighteenth race, involving both skill and a bit of luck as he understeered off the circuit, but avoiding the barriers, continued on, and as he saw the condition of team mate Martin Brundle's tyres, decided a change to slicks was the right thing to do. This allowed him to build up a lead which no-one was able to conquer. After a close second in the final race of the season in Adelaide, he finished third in the World Championship, a tremendous achievement in only his first full year of Formula One.

1993 was a disappointing year in many ways, with many good qualifying performances thwarted by a lack of reliability with the car. He was set to win in Monaco when a '50 cent' part failed, causing hydraulic failure. Also, a problem with the traction control system led to lost places at the start of at least two races, possibly costing him victory in the Belgian Grand Prix. A string of podium finishes, as well as another win offset that to an extent, bringing him fourth in the World Championship.

1994 was a tumultuous and tragic year. Tragic, with the deaths of the rookie Roland Ratzenberger and the brilliant triple World Champion Ayrton Senna at Imola, as well as the crash of Karl Wendlinger at Monaco. Tumultuous, as allegations of traction control were levelled at the Benetton team, the passing of Damon Hill on the warm-up lap at Silverstone and then not responding to the black flag, Verstappen's pit-stop fire at Hockenheim, the 'too-thin' plank at Spa and finally the collision with Hill at the final race of the season at Adelaide topped off a season full of ups and downs as he won 8 races and became World Champion. It was a year that many thought would be dominated by Senna, but it was not to be. Michael himself believed that this may well have occurred, with a statement made during a post-race interview at Adelaide saying he would like to give the World Championship to Senna. In Barcelona, Michael finished second in what was probably his best ever drive, as for three-quarters of the race the car was stuck in 5th gear. It was only the combination of the flexibility of the Zetec-R engine, Michael's skill as well as some of the techniques he had learned in Sports-Prototype racing to maximize corner speed that allowed him to finish the race so well.

1995 started off controversially when both Michael and David Coulthard were disqualified from the Brazilian Grand Prix over fuel irregularities. The FIA's subsequent decision over the appeal confused the teams as the drivers got their points back while the constructors didn't! When Michael crashed at Imola, speculation from the press said he had 'cracked' under pressure. The next few races certainly did not provide any more evidence of this being the case. Another collision with Hill at Silverstone lead to speculation of a bitter feud between Michael and Damon, which both parties denied. A wet and dry race at Spa led to more sparks as a minor clash between the cars when Hill on wets tried to pass Michael on slicks in wet conditions at Les Combes, as well as claims of blocking only led to further claims of a feud, not helped at Monza when Hill and Schumacher went off again together. The remainder of the season was reasonably uncontroversial, as Michael took 3 wins, including one at the Nürburgring where he charged from 40+ seconds behind to win the race, after passing Alesi around the outside with just 2 laps to go. Winning 9 races for the season, equalling Nigel Mansell's 1992 record, becoming World Champion for a second time, (the youngest double champion), as well as helping Benetton secure their first Constructors' Championship, in a car many acknowledged was not as good as the Williams, made the achievements even more meritorious. In fact, it will be a year that he may well find hard (if not impossible) to beat.

1996 was an interesting year. Could Michael retain the title and make it three in a row for only the second time in the history of Formula 1? How well would 'rookie' (though 1995 IndyCar World Series Champion) Jacques Villeneuve, and more importantly, how well would Damon Hill do? Would he win the championship? Would he keep his Williams drive? There seemed to be more worries during the season off the track than on it! Despite little pre-season testing, the two Ferraris occupied the second row in Melbourne, with Eddie Irvine becoming only the third driver to outqualify Michael (each doing so only once). However, the car was not fully sorted and ran several of the early races with parts from the '95 car in the interests of reliability. Still, Michael ran remarkably close to the lead in Argentina, Nürburgring and Imola, with Nürburgring being a highlight as he pushed Villeneuve hard for 2/3 of the race. Then came Monaco and the meeting with the Armco... Barcelona was the exact opposite, as Michael absolutely demolished the opposition, with a fastest lap more than 2 seconds faster than anyone elses! Unfortunately this was followed by a period of unreliability, the worst being the engine detonating on the warm-up lap of the French Grand Prix, after Michael had managed to set pole! Finally at Spa and Monza things turned better, as he won both races, with the tifosi going beserk for the first Ferrari victory at Monza since 1988. A third, and then second at the final race rounded off a reasonably successful year - not as successful as some hoped, but as successful as could be expeccted in the circumstances. Will the improved late season form continue into 1997? Will Barnard design a better car for 1997, and has Ferrari solved their reliability problems? Only time will tell.

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