Michael Schumacher

F1 debut and controversial first title

In 1991 Schumacher moved up to F1 competition as a driver for the Jordan team. After just one race with Jordan, he switched to Benetton in September that year.

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He won the F1 Drivers’ Championship with Benetton in 1994. Schumacher’s first title was marred by multiple controversies and the tragic deaths of drivers Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The Benetton team also faced allegations of cheating, which included accusations involving illegal electronic driver aids, such as traction and launch control software, and the removal of a filter from the refueling equipment valve. However, the team was ultimately not penalized for either allegation. The governing body for world motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA; French: “International Automobile Federation”), discovered illegal launch control software in Benetton’s engine management system but found no conclusive evidence that it had been used in a race. The FIA was also unable to prove that Benetton removed the fuel filter to gain an unfair advantage.

Schumacher was disqualified or banned from a total of four races during the season. At the British GP, he was penalized for illegally overtaking fellow driver Damon Hill during the formation lap before the start of the race and ignored both the penalty and a black flag (used to signal that a driver has been disqualified and should instantly return to the team garage) on lap 22, ultimately finishing in second place. During a post-race disciplinary hearing, the FIA nullified Schumacher’s British GP track result and banned him for two races. Later in the season, his victory at the Belgian GP was overturned when a post-race check found that the wooden plank on the undercarriage of Schumacher’s car had been shaved down to 7.4 mm in thickness, well below the legal minimum limit of 9 mm.

Before the Australian GP, the final race of the season, Schumacher led Hill by a single point in the championship contest. On lap 36 of the race, with Hill less than two seconds behind, Schumacher crashed into a wall and damaged his car before returning to the track, allowing Hill to close the gap. However, the two cars collided when Hill tried to overtake, and both drivers were forced to retire from the race, with Schumacher securing the title. He won his second championship the next year.

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Move to Ferrari and later career

Before the 1996 season Schumacher moved to the Ferrari team and finished third in the championship standings. After suffering a broken leg in a crash in 1999, Schumacher rebounded to win a third championship the following year, which was Ferrari’s first drivers’ title since 1979. His 2000 win was the first in a string of five consecutive world championships (2000–04), and his grand total of seven F1 titles broke Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five that had stood for nearly 50 years. In 2005 and 2006 he finished in third and second place in the F1 standings, respectively.

Schumacher retired at the end of the 2006 campaign to serve as a test driver and adviser for Ferrari. At the time of his retirement, he had 91 F1 Grand Prix victories, which shattered the previous record of 51, held by French driver Alain Prost. In December 2009 Schumacher announced that he would return to F1 for the 2010 season as a driver for the Mercedes team. He spent three seasons with Mercedes but never won a race and never finished higher than eighth in the overall F1 standings during his comeback, and he retired again in 2012.