Michael Schumacher

The path to car racing started with Formula Ford or Formula Koenig, as it was known in Germany. To compete at this level Schumacher would need sponsors and lucky for him several sponsors including Jurgen Dik had noticed the young German. Michael Schumacher first full year competing in the series saw him win nine out of ten rounds. Willie Weber, his future manager, was running his own Formula Three team and gave Michael a test in one of his cars. After seven or eight laps he was setting times 1 1/2 seconds faster than Webber's regular driver. Schumacher's first year in Formula Three saw him competing against future Formula 1 drivers, Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Wendlinger eventually nosed out his compatriots for the
title. The next year was all Schumacher. Instead of graduating to Formula 3000 Webber placed his young protégé in the Mercedes junior team driving a sports car for Sauber along with his former Formula Three rivals. Under the watchful eyes of Jochen Neerspasch and Jochen Mass he was schooled in the art of racecar driving. During this period Schumacher learned much of what would later become his trademark smooth style.

Michael Schumacher was born on the third of January 1969 to Rolf and Elisabeth Schumacher. The family move to the town of Kerpin-Manheim, a working class town near Cologne, Germany. It was there that the family became involved with karting. Michael, only four at the time was given a kart powered by an old lawn-mower engine by his father. From so humble a beginning was a World Champion's career launched. Karting became a family obsession fed by the resourcefulness of the elder Schumacher and the spirit of young Michael. Rolf Schumacher's mechanical ability led him to work part-time repairing other go-karts at the local track. In 1980 he travelled to Nivelles, Belgium for the World Karting Championship and saw a driver that impressed him deeply, that driver was Ayrton Senna. Michael was soon making a name for himself and in 1984 he won the German Junior Championship. The European championship came his way in 1987.

Schumacher made his Formula One debut with the Jordan–Ford team at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, driving car number 32 as a replacement for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot. Schumacher, still a contracted Mercedes driver, was signed by Eddie Jordan after Mercedes paid Jordan $150,000 for his debut. The week before the race, Schumacher impressed Jordan designer Gary Anderson and team manager Trevor Foster during a test drive at Silverstone. His manager Willi Weber assured Jordan that Schumacher knew the challenging Spa track well, although in fact he had only seen it as a spectator. During the race weekend, team-mate Andrea de Cesaris was meant to show Schumacher the circuit but was held up with contract negotiations. Schumacher then learned the track on his own, by cycling around the track on a fold-up bike he had brought with him. He impressed the paddock by qualifying seventh in this race. This matched the team's season-best grid position, and out-qualified 11-year veteran de Cesaris. Motorsport journalist Joe Saward reported that after qualifying "clumps of German journalists were talking about 'the best talent since Stefan Bellof'". Schumacher retired on the first lap of the race with clutch problems.

Schumacher's first drive of the 2010 Mercedes car – the Mercedes MGP W01 – was at the official test on 2 February 2010 in Valencia. He finished sixth in the first race of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix. A fortnight later at the Australian Grand Prix Schumacher, after running as high as third on the opening lap, was caught up in a tangle between Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button at the start and had to pit for a new front wing. He came from the back to finish in the points in tenth position after spending 20 laps behind Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari. In the Malaysian Grand Prix Schumacher retired early in the race with a faulty wheel nut. Schumacher qualified 9th in the Chinese Grand Prix and finished 10th after being passed by several other drivers in the wet conditions towards the end of the race. After the race former driver Stirling Moss suggested that Schumacher, who had finished behind his team-mate in each of the first four qualifying sessions and races, might be "past it".