Michael Schumacher was born on 3 January 1969 in Hurth-Hermulheim, Cologne, West Germany.
Michael Schumacher was German Formula Three Champion in 1990 and had his first Grand Prix start in Belgium in 1991 for Jordan. Later that year Schumacher joined Benetton, and a year later gained his first Grand Prix win.
It was to be the first of many. Before the start of the 2005 season, Michael Schumacher had won 83 Grand Prix victories—70 more than his closest active rival—leading to seven drivers’ titles (two more than any other driver in history).
In 1994 and 1995 Michael Schumacher was world champion with Benetton and in the five consecutive years from 2000 to 2004 he won the title with Ferrari.
Interestingly a fair number of Michael Schumacher’s victories have not been from pole position. At one stage his record was 195 starts, 70 wins from 55 pole positions.
Whereas in 1988 Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, although both driving for McLaren, would race against each other with Senna winning the title with eight wins to seven, the same situation does not arise with Ferrari.
The most exciting thing in Formula One is the question of when Schumacher is going to stop for petrol. Michael Schumacher and his difficulties were enhanced by criticism from his younger brother, Ralf Schumacher after the Monaco Grand Prix.
Ralf accused Michael of risking both their lives with a ‘crazy’ move at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Nevertheless, Schumacher came 17th in the Forbes list of the most powerful celebrities 2005.
Before the first race of the 2006 season—the Bahrain Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher captured one of the few records in F1 that had eluded him. Schumacher’s pole position was his 65th, equalling the record set by Ayrton Senna.
