1979 and the Constructors’
Championship in 1983, for a
salary of $60 million over 2
years. He left Benetton a year
before his contract with them
expired; he later cited the team’s
damaging actions in 1994 as
his reason for opting out of his
deal.
2000–2004: World
Championship years
M
S
ICHAEL
Manfred von Richthofen, the
famous flying ace of World War I.
CHUMACHER
The 1994 season was Schumacher’s first Drivers’ Championship. The season,
however, was marred by the deaths of
Ayrton Senna
(witnessed by
Schumacher, who was directly behind in 2nd position) and
Roland Ratzenberger during the
San Marino Grand Prix, and by
allegations that several teams, but
most particularly Schumacher’s
Benetton team, broke the sport’s
technical regulations.
(born 3 January 1969) is a
German retired racing driver.
Schumacher is a seven-time
Formula One World Champion
and is widely regarded as one of
the greatest Formula One
drivers of all time. He holds many
of Formula One’s driver records,
including most championships,
race victories, fastest laps, pole
positions and most races won in
a single season – 13 in 2004 (the
last of these records was equalled
by fellow German Sebastian
Vettel nine years later). In 2002,
he became the only driver in
Formula One history to finish in
the top three in every race of a
season and then also broke the record for most consecutive podium
finishes. According to the official
Formula One website, he is
“statistically the greatest driver
the sport has ever seen”
Formula One career
Schumacher won six of the
first seven races and was leading
the Spanish Grand Prix, before a
gearbox failure left him stuck in
fifth gear. Schumacher finished
the race in second place.
In
1995
Schumacher
successfully defended his title
with Benetton. He now had the
same Renault engine as Williams.
He accumulated 33 more points
than second-placed Dam