German ace Michael Schumacher is widely recognised as being the world's best ever racing driver. Michael is a 7 times F1 World Champion and now races for the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.
In 1995 Michael became the (at that time) youngest double Formula 1 World Champion (1994 and 1995 seasons) ever. He is also the 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 World Champion. This phenomenal record speaks for itself. His sixth title in 2003 beat Juan Manuel Fangio's long standing record of five championships from the 1950s! Schuey announced his retirement from F1 racing at the end of the 2006 season and was retained in a consultancy role by Ferrari. However, from 2010 Michael sensationally returned to F1 racing, by signing a 3 year contract to race for the Mercedes GP team.
Michael's last championship title in 2004 was secured before the season end, taking his total number of titles to 7. Memorably, he did this by finishing 2nd at Spa in Belgium, in Ferrari's 700th race, to accumulate enough points to seal the deal.
Michael also holds the F1 records for: most career wins (91), most wins in a season, most career pole positions, most points during a season (148 in 2004), most consecutive world championships (5), most consecutive race wins (2004), most podium finsihes (154), most laps leading, most fastest laps (76), plus several others!
Michael was at one point the highest paid racing driver in the world and second highest earning sportsman in the world, earning a reported $80 million US in 2004 ($40m of which was his salary from Ferrari). Whilst they were both racing in F1, his younger brother Ralf was the 3rd highest paid driver in Formula 1 in 1999 and whose pay after the 2000 season was raised to US$15.5 million.
Michael announced he will return to F1 to race for the Mercedes GP Petronas team in 2010, having signed a three year contract with them. Nico Rosberg will be his team mate. The move will see Michael reunited with Ross Brawn, who he worked with to win all of his world titles.
It will be the first time recent winners Hamilton and Vettel have raced against the legend.
Schuey made the following announcement, "I have decided to return to Formula One. Mercedes GP and I agreed on teaming up for the coming 3 seasons. And to be honest, I'm already super excited by the prospect to be back in a F1 cockpit.
I don't want to deny at all that the idea of a German F1 team extremely tempts me. I guess every German driver would feel this way. And of course it plays a major role that I again can work together with Ross at Mercedes GP. Above all, however, my old hunger for racing is back. In Abu Dhabi, when Ross asked me if I could imagine returning to F1, I felt that I wasn't ready for it. But only two weeks later, when he called me once again, I realized that my old passion was returning. Suddenly I was on fire again. For me, the imagination to be back in a F1 car and to compete for the world championships is exciting and extremely inspiring.
To put it simply: I'm totally fired up for next year!"
Team mate Rosberg commeted, "It is fantastic that Michael is returning to Formula One and will be my team-mate at MERCEDES GP PETRONAS. It’s a great challenge for me to be up against one of the best drivers of all time."
SpeedTV posted the following interview with Michael, Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and Norbert Haug:
