Michael Schumacher (GER)  World Champion - 1994-1995, 2000-2004.

Grand Prix Starts: 250  

Grand Prix Wins: 91 

Pole Positions: 68

Podium: 154  (1:91  2:43    3:20)

Fastest Laps: 74

Points Earned: 1369

Since the Formula One World Championship began in 1950 the title was been won by 27 different drivers, 13 of whom won more than one championship. Of the multiple champions the most prolific was Juan Manuel Fangio, whose record of five titles stood for five decades until it was eclipsed by the most dominant driver in Formula One history. If Michael Schumacher's record of seven championships is ever surpassed the one most likely to do it is the superstar himself. No other driver has been so clearly superior to his contemporaries.

The most extraordinary driver's origins were most ordinary. He was born on January 3, 1969, near Cologne, Germany, six years before his brother Ralf, who would also become a Formula driver of note. Their father, a bricklayer, ran the local kart track, at Kerpen, where Mrs Schumacher operated the canteen. As a four-year old Michael enjoyed playing on a pedal kart, though when his father fitted it with a small motorcycle engine the future superstar promptly crashed into a lamppost. But Michael quickly mastered his machine and won his first kart championship at six, following which his far from affluent parents arranged sponsorship from wealthy enthusiasts that enabled Michael to make rapid progress. By 1987 he was German and European kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice car mechanic, a job that was soon replaced by full-time employment as a race driver. In 1990 he won the German Formula Three championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sportscars. The next year he made a stunning Formula One debut, qualifying an astonishing seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, whereupon he was immediately snapped up by Benetton, where in 1992 he won his first Formula One race, again at Spa, the most demanding circuit of them all.

Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. His first, in 1994, was somewhat tainted in that Benetton was suspected of technical irregularities and in their championship showdown race in Adelaide Schumacher collided (deliberately, some thought) with his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill. But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. The Schumacher-Ferrari combination began promisingly with three wins in 1996 and five more in 1997, though that season ended in humiliation when in the final race, at Jerez in Spain, Schumacher tried unsuccessfully to ram the Williams of his title rival Jacques Villeneuve off the road. As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's points and his second place in the championship were stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite.

After finishing second overall in 1998, Schumacher's 1999 season was interrupted by a crash at Silverstone where he received a broken leg that kept him out of action for several races. From then on there was no stopping 'Schumi' - who in 2000 became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years, then went on to win the driving title for the next four years in succession. In 2002 he won 11 of the 17 races and finished on the podium in all of them. In 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races, extending his career total to 83 (32 more than his nearest rival, Alain Prost) and winning his seventh championship by a massive margin.

Like all the great drivers Schumacher has exceptional ambition, confidence, intelligence, motivation, dedication and determination. But few have combined these qualities to create such excellence and even fewer have been so excellent for so long. For Schumacher, his sheer enthusiasm for driving (he still goes karting for fun) is like a fountain of youth, his search for improvement never ends and his racing success drives him on.

Blessed with a supreme natural talent honed to the highest degree, he has a racing brain to match and spare mental capacity that enables him to make split-second decisions, adapt to changing circumstances and plan ahead while driving on the limit, which with his superb state of fitness (he trains harder than any driver) he can do consistently for lengthy periods of time. The swift, smooth and mechanically-aware driver operates with a keen sensitivity for the limits of his car and himself (he seldom makes mistakes) and his feedback to the engineers (led by technical director Ross Brawn who has worked with him since the Benetton days) is exceptional astute.

No Ferrari driver has worked harder for the team, nor has any been more appreciated than the man who has led the team to six successive Constructors' Championships. He leads by example, frequently visiting the factory at Maranello, talking to the personnel, thanking them, encouraging them, never criticising and inspiring everyone with his optimism, high energy level and huge work ethic. The team is devoted to the driver who often says he "loves" the Ferrari "family."

His own family - wife Corinna and their children Gina-Maria and Mick - is sacred to Schumacher, whose happy home life (playing with the children, walking the dogs) in Switzerland is kept deliberately normal as an antidote to the rigours of racing. He loves the natural world (green is his favourite colour) and animals (he once adopted a stray dog he found wandering around the paddock in Brazil) and counts farming as a possible future venture. An essentially shy and private man, he considers his status as an international celebrity a cost of doing business. Arguably the most famous sportsman in the world, he is also among the highest earners (reportedly as much as $100 million a year). Rich beyond his wildest dreams, he is generously uses his fortune to help those less fortunate. He supports charities, especially those for underprivileged children, and to help victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster he made a personal donation of $10 million.

As a driver Michael Schumacher has no obvious weaknesses, save for an occasional lapse of concentration from boredom when running alone in front without having to fight, the aspect of racing in which he takes particular delight: "I love the sport, it's in my blood to compete and fight, to try to beat my opponents and win. That's what I'm living for, in a way. As long as I'm competitive and able to fight with the young boys, I'm happy."

At 36, the oldest in the 2005 field and a 15-year veteran of well over 200 races, the driver who made Formula One racing his personal playground suffered down because of Tyre Rules which seem to be unsuitable for Ferrari.

For the Final Year 2006 ,he annonunce End of Era at Glorious Victory of Monza. And Showed his class of racing in china & Brazil.Although he lost Drivers Title but still people Salute the Legendary Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher and the rest.
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