Michael Schumacher was born near Cologne in 1969, the son of a bricklayer who ran the local kart track. There was no money for racing; other people’s karts and sponsors paid for it. He made his Formula One debut with Jordan at Spa in 1991, qualified seventh, and was signed by Benetton before the next race.
He won his first Grand Prix in 1992 and the title with Benetton in 1994 and 1995. The first was settled in Adelaide when he and Damon Hill collided and both retired — a moment argued about ever since.
In 1996 he moved to Ferrari, which had not won a drivers’ title since 1979. It took four years of building, with Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne beside him, and then Ferrari and Schumacher won five championships in a row, from 2000 to 2004. The Ferrari Enzo was built in those years, named after the founder of a team that was once again ruling the sport.
His record was also his controversy. At Jerez in 1997 he turned into Jacques Villeneuve while fighting for the title and was excluded from that year’s championship; at Monaco in 2006 he stopped his car on the circuit in qualifying and was sent to the back of the grid. He retired at the end of 2006 with seven titles and ninety-one wins, both records at the time, came back with Mercedes from 2010 to 2012, and helped build the team that would dominate the decade after him.
On 29 December 2013 he fell while skiing off-piste at Méribel and suffered a serious head injury. His family has kept his condition private ever since. His son Mick raced in Formula One from 2021 to 2022.
Foto: Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
The cars
Cars in the catalog he drove, won in, or that were named after him.
