60 Fun Facts About Michael Schumacher

In which Australian city did Schumacher clinch his first world title in 1994?

Adelaide. Leading the standings by a single point, he hit a wall on lap 36 and then collided with his title rival as he rejoined; with both men out of the race, he was Germany's first world champion.

After winning at which Italian circuit in 2006 did Schumacher announce his first retirement from Formula One?

Monza. Ferrari confirmed it straight after the Italian Grand Prix; he won once more, in China, to finish with 91 victories, which was then a record.

Schumacher's birthplace, Hürth, and childhood home, Kerpen, are both near which German city?

Cologne. Hürth borders the city, and at nearby Kerpen's kart track, which his father came to run, Schumacher won his first club championship at the age of six.

How did the four-year-old Schumacher's father upgrade his pedal kart?

He fitted a small motorcycle engine, and the four-year-old promptly drove it into a lamp post, so his parents took him to the local kart club instead.

In which country did 12-year-old Schumacher get a kart licence, dodging Germany's minimum age of 14?

Luxembourg. Its licences were open to 12-year-olds, so he raced under one until he was old enough for a German licence, and he went on to win the German junior kart title in 1984.

Which street race did Schumacher win in 1990 driving the closing laps without a rear wing?

A Finnish rival crashed into the back of him while trying to pass; Schumacher gave the prize money to his indebted family.

In which 24-hour race did Schumacher finish fifth in 1991 after setting the fastest lap?

Le Mans. Sharing a works sports car with two fellow juniors, he led early and reeled off fastest laps during the night, before gearbox trouble dropped the car to fifth.

For which team did Schumacher make his Formula One debut at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix?

Jordan. Its regular driver Bertrand Gachot had just been jailed for spraying CS gas at a London taxi driver, so the team gave his car to a German newcomer from sports-car racing.

How did Schumacher learn the Belgian circuit before his 1991 debut?

He rode round it on a folding bicycle. He had never raced there, though his manager had assured the team he knew the track well, and he still qualified seventh, ahead of his experienced teammate.

Who poached Schumacher from his first team after a single Grand Prix in 1991?

Flavio Briatore. Schumacher had qualified seventh on his debut, ahead of his experienced teammate, and by the very next race he was in a Benetton, scoring his first points.

Which three-time world champion was Schumacher's teammate at Benetton in late 1991?

Nelson Piquet. In only his second Grand Prix, and his first for the team, the 22-year-old Schumacher finished fifth, one place ahead of the Brazilian.

At which circuit did Schumacher take his first Grand Prix win, in a wet 1992 race?

Spa-Francorchamps. A year after his debut there, he slid off the drying track, stopped at once for slick tyres and came out ahead when the leaders stayed out too long.

With whom did Schumacher collide at the final race of 1994 to clinch his first title?

Damon Hill. Schumacher had just hit a wall when Hill tried to pass, and their collision put both out of the race, leaving Schumacher champion by a single point; some thought it deliberate.

Why was Schumacher disqualified and banned for two races after the 1994 British Grand Prix?

He ignored a black flag, shown when he failed to serve a stop-go penalty for passing the pole-sitter on the formation lap; his team pleaded a misunderstanding, but he was thrown out and missed two races.

Who ran Ferrari's team throughout Schumacher's years there?

Jean Todt. A former rally co-driver who had won four Paris-Dakar rallies as Peugeot's competition boss, he took over a struggling Ferrari in July 1993 and built the team Schumacher led to five straight titles.

Which two Benetton men followed Schumacher to Ferrari for the 1997 season?

Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn. Byrne was bound for retirement and scuba diving in Thailand until Schumacher pressed Ferrari to hire him; as designer and technical director, the pair worked on every one of his championship wins.

Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 championship after colliding with which driver at Jerez?

Jacques Villeneuve. Schumacher turned in on him as he was being overtaken, bounced into the gravel and retired, while the damaged Williams carried on to finish third and take the title.

Which Finnish driver beat Schumacher to the 1998 title and was his main rival around 2000?

Mika Hakkinen. He sealed the 1998 title at the final race, where Schumacher stalled on pole position and had to start again from the back of the grid.

What injury did Schumacher suffer after a brake failure in 1999?

A broken leg. His Ferrari went straight on into the barriers at Silverstone's Stowe corner; he sat out the next three months, then came back to help his teammate's bid for the title instead of his own.

At which Japanese circuit did Schumacher end Ferrari's 21-year wait for a drivers' title in 2000?

Suzuka. Beaten into the first corner by his title rival, he stayed with him through light rain, took the lead at the second pit stops and won the title with a race to spare.

Schumacher's only win of 2005 came after most rivals withdrew over fears about which tyre brand?

Michelin. Its tyres had failed in practice, so every car using them peeled into the pits after the formation lap, leaving Schumacher to beat just five rivals, all on Bridgestones.

Which was the only one of 2004's first 13 races that Schumacher failed to win?

Monaco. He was leading behind the safety car when he and a Williams tangled in the tunnel, pitching his Ferrari into the barrier; he still won 13 of that year's 18 races.

What happened at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix that angered fans?

Barrichello slowed to hand Schumacher the win on Ferrari's orders, within sight of the flag; the crowd booed the podium, and the sport banned such team orders from the following season.

At which American circuit did Schumacher slow at the line in 2002, losing to his teammate by 0.011 seconds?

Indianapolis. He eased off on the run to the flag, hoping, he said, to stage a dead heat; instead his Ferrari teammate crossed the line first in one of the closest finishes the sport has seen.

Whose record for most career wins did Schumacher break at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix, his 52nd victory?

Alain Prost. Schumacher had matched the Frenchman's 51 wins at the previous race, in Hungary, where he also sealed that year's title, and he retired with 40 more than him.

Who beat Michael Schumacher into second place at the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix?

Ralf Schumacher. The younger brother shadowed Michael's Ferrari in his Williams, got ahead at the pit stops and led him home in Formula One's first one-two finish by brothers.

Which driver beat Schumacher to the 2006 title in his final season with Ferrari?

Fernando Alonso. Schumacher clawed back a big deficit to top the standings with two races left, only for his engine to fail while he was leading the next one, in Japan.

In what kind of racing did Schumacher compete during 2008, between his F1 careers?

Motorcycle superbikes. He raced in the German series for the fun of it, and a testing crash early in 2009 left a neck injury that scuppered a planned Formula One return that summer.

With which driver did Schumacher win the Race of Champions Nations' Cup for Germany every year from 2007 to 2012?

Sebastian Vettel. He had grown up idolising Schumacher, and while the two were winning the cup together he took the first of his own four straight Formula One titles.

In which country did Schumacher make his Formula One comeback at the opening race of 2010?

Bahrain. He had won the first Grand Prix ever held there, in 2004; this time the 41-year-old finished sixth, one place behind his 24-year-old teammate.

At which race did Schumacher claim his final podium, in 2012?

The European Grand Prix. On fresh tyres he passed car after car in the closing laps at Valencia, and a collision ahead of him near the end lifted him to third; at 43 he was the oldest driver on a podium since 1970.

Schumacher took his first Ferrari win in torrential rain at which country's 1996 Grand Prix?

Spain. A poor start dropped him down the field, but he was leading within 20 laps and won by 45 seconds, the kind of wet-weather drive behind his German nickname Regenmeister, the rain master.

Which German circuit renamed a pair of corners the Schumacher S in 2007?

Nürburgring. Schumacher's rise had brought Formula One back to the track in 1995, and he won there five times before it put his name on the corners.

How was a prototype of the carbon-fibre helmet Schumacher helped develop publicly tested in 2004?

A tank drove over it. The maker, Schuberth, staged the stunt to prove the strength of the new multi-layered carbon shell, which came through intact.

Whom did Schumacher marry in August 1995?

Corinna Betsch. A keen horsewoman, she went on to win a European championship in western riding in 2010, and the couple bought ranches in Texas and Switzerland for her horses.

Which motorcycle world champion was Schumacher's neighbour and friend during his years in Monaco in the 1990s?

Mick Doohan. The friendship outlasted Monaco: years later Schumacher gave Doohan's young son Jack his first go-kart, and Jack went on to race in Formula One himself.

Schumacher gave $10 million of his own money to relief after which disaster?

Indian Ocean tsunami. Announced days after the waves struck in December 2004, his own gift was bigger than those of most sports bodies, the International Olympic Committee and the Premier League among them.

In which French Alpine resort did Schumacher suffer his skiing accident in December 2013?

Meribel. He was crossing an unmarked strip between two pistes when he fell and struck his head on a rock; his doctors said that without his helmet he would probably not have survived.

To which French city's hospital was Schumacher taken for brain surgery after his 2013 skiing accident?

Grenoble. Surgeons there operated on him twice and kept him in an induced coma; the following June he was moved to a hospital in Lausanne for rehabilitation.

Which football legend presented Schumacher with a lifetime achievement award before his final race for Ferrari, in Brazil?

Pelé. He handed it over before the start at Interlagos in 2006; Schumacher then dropped to the back with a puncture and charged through the field to finish fourth.

Which driver's fatal crash did Schumacher witness from directly behind at Imola in 1994?

Ayrton Senna. Schumacher was right behind him when the Williams went straight on at Tamburello; in 2000, told he had matched Senna's 41 Grand Prix wins, he broke down in tears in front of the press.

Which single-seater title did Schumacher win in 1990, the year before his Formula One debut?

German Formula Three. In the same year Mercedes hired him and his two chief rivals from the series, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger, to share one of its works sports prototypes.

Schumacher made a cameo as a racer in a 2008 French film about which comic-book hero?

Asterix. In Asterix at the Olympic Games he plays a chariot driver called Schumix, one of several sports stars with cameos, Zinedine Zidane among them.

Which driver did a furious Schumacher confront after hitting his car in Belgium in 1998?

David Coulthard. Leading by almost 40 seconds, Schumacher ran into the back of the lapped McLaren, limped to the pits on three wheels and marched straight to the rival garage to shout at him.

Which streaming service released the 2021 documentary Schumacher, made with his family's cooperation?

Netflix. The family opened its private archive of photos and home movies for the film, and his wife, his father, his brother and both children all gave interviews.

Which Ferrari teammate did Schumacher let past to win in Malaysia in 1999, on his return from injury?

Eddie Irvine. Schumacher took pole by about a second, waved the Ulsterman through and held up the pack behind, leaving Irvine with a title lead that he lost at the final race.

What was the trade of Schumacher's father Rolf before he ran the local kart track?

Bricklayer. To pay for his son's racing, Rolf took a second job repairing and renting out karts at the Kerpen track, while his wife ran its canteen.

Which Finnish driver stood in for the injured Schumacher at Ferrari in 1999?

Mika Salo. In his second race in the car he led the German Grand Prix, then gave up what would have been his first victory, on team orders, to help his teammate's title bid.

Which team ran the Mercedes sports prototypes Schumacher raced as a junior in 1990 and 1991?

Sauber. The Swiss team ran the Mercedes junior programme and then entered Formula One under its own name in 1993, by which time Schumacher was winning races for Benetton.

Who had been Ferrari's last world champion driver before Schumacher ended the team's 21-year wait in 2000?

Jody Scheckter. The South African won in 1979; to end the drought that followed, Ferrari hired Schumacher, then the reigning double champion, on a reported $30 million a year.

Whose record of five world championships did Schumacher equal in 2002 and break in 2003?

Juan Manuel Fangio. Schumacher matched the Argentine's five titles as early as mid-July 2002; the next year the points system was redrawn to keep title fights closer, and he still won a sixth.

Which Ferrari driver's 2009 injury led the team to plan a Schumacher comeback that never happened?

Felipe Massa. A loose suspension spring struck his helmet in qualifying in Hungary; Schumacher agreed to stand in, then had to withdraw because of a neck injury of his own.

Who was Schumacher's teammate at Mercedes GP on his 2010 return to Formula One?

Nico Rosberg. The 24-year-old scored almost twice as many points as Schumacher in 2010, the first teammate to beat him over a full season, and became world champion himself in 2016.

Which driver replaced Schumacher at Mercedes for the 2013 season?

Lewis Hamilton. Schumacher hesitated over a new contract, so Mercedes signed the McLaren driver instead, and by 2020 Hamilton had equalled his record of seven world titles.

In which animated film does Schumacher voice a red Ferrari?

Cars. He is credited as Michael Schumacher Ferrari, a red F430, in a story whose tyre dealer Luigi, a little Fiat 500, is written as a devoted Ferrari fan.

On which BBC motoring show did Schumacher appear as 'the Stig' in 2009?

He was also voted the most influential person in Formula One history in a 2020 poll.

Michael Schumacher helped relaunch which representative body in 1994 and served for years as one of its directors?

Grand Prix Drivers' Association. Disbanded in 1982, it was revived in 1994, soon after two drivers died in one race weekend, to give the grid a united voice on safety.

Which city named a street after Schumacher to honour his aid for children maimed in its 1990s war?

Sarajevo. He visited twice just after the Bosnian war, in 1996 and 1997, to see children wounded in it, and the city made him an honorary citizen in 2014.

Schumacher turned down a 2008 invitation from San Marino's SS Murata to play in which football competition?

Champions League. Murata, champions of tiny San Marino, wanted him for a qualifying round against Gothenburg; he declined and kept his football to FC Echichens, a lower-league Swiss side.

With which team did Mick Schumacher make his Formula One debut in 2021?

Haas. He arrived as Formula 2 champion and a Ferrari academy driver, but the Ferrari-powered American team failed to score a single point all season.