Michael Schumacher is a German world race car champion driver. He is 7-time world champion in Formula One or F1, the world’s highest class of single-seater motor racing championship, holding many of F1’s driver records. These records include most championships, most race victories, most pole positions, fastest laps, points scored and most races won in a single season. He is the only driver in F1 history to have finished in top three positions in every race of a season. After his 11-year stint with Ferrari, he is now driving for Mercedes GP.
Early life. Born on January 3, 1969, he started to learn how to drive at age 4 with a pedal kart equipped with a small motorcycle engine. During that stage, he crashed into a lamp post, prompting his parents to take him to a karting track where he became the youngest member of the karting club and where he engaged further in race training. At 14, he obtained a German driving license shortly after winning the German Junior Kart championship. He went on to become the German and European Kart Champion in 1985 and 1987, and ventured into a single-seat car racing in the German Formula Ford and the Formula Konig, which he won in 1988.
Professional career, championships. After winning the German Formula Konig, he signed as a driver for Benetton team in 1991 where he won consecutive championships in 1994 and 1995. He moved to Ferrari in 1996 for which he took five consecutive driver’s titles from 2000 to 2004. Upon his retirement from F1 in 2006, he had collected seven world championship titles, and such F1 records, as follow: (a) most career wins at 91, (b) most wins in a season, (c) most career pole positions, (d) most points during a single season (148 in 2004), (e) most consecutive world championships, (f) most consecutive race wins (2004), (g) most podium finishes (154), and (h) most laps leading and most fastest laps. At one point in his career, he was also the top paid racing driver and the second top earning sports figure in the world.
Career controversies. Behind his racing victories, he also figured in controversies involving collisions with fellow drivers during the race, such as Damon Hill in Adelaide in 1994, and Jacques Villeneuve in Jerez in 1997. The Schumacher-Villeneuve collision forced Schumacher to retire from the entire season. It happened on Lap 48 as Villeneuve was trying to overtake Schumacher who turned in, resulting in high front wheel of his Ferrari hitting the left side pod of Villeneuve’s car. Schumacher was disqualified from the entire 1997 season by the F1 disciplinary hearing body.
Off-track life, support for charity. Off the racing track, Schumacher was involved in various humanitarian efforts throughout his life. He is now an ambassador of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and a spokesman for driver’s safety. He is said to have donated tens of millions of U.S. dollars to charity from his huge car racing earnings. Young German drivers have credited him for being key in their becoming F1 drivers too. He was president of the Grand Prix Drivers Association in the rear part of his career. In 2006, F1 fans voted him as the most popular driver in the motor racing championships.
