Michael Schumacher

Interesting facts

At four he fitted a motorcycle engine to his pedal kart; by six he'd won a club championship, and at twelve he took out a Luxembourg racing licence to get around Germany's minimum age rule. He made his F1 debut at Spa in 1991, stepping in for the jailed Bertrand Gachot at Jordan, qualifying seventh on a circuit he'd never driven after just half a day's testing, then retiring on lap one with clutch failure. Moving to Ferrari in 1996, he brought Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne over from Benetton, and together they spent years rebuilding the team toward the top. His collision with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997 got him disqualified from the entire championship; Villeneuve later admitted he'd never have made the corner without the contact. A brake failure at Stowe corner in the 1999 British GP broke his leg and sidelined him for six races; he returned with a pole position margin of nearly a second. At the 2002 French GP he clinched the title with six races still to run, still the earliest a championship has ever been decided in F1. On 29 December 2013 he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a skiing accident at Meribel and spent months in an induced coma; his family has since kept his health strictly private, and he has not appeared in public. He donated more than $65 million to charity over his career and was named a UNESCO Champion for Sport in 2002. Michael Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut in 1991 and raced until 2012, 19 seasons in total as a German driver. He won the World Championship 7 times, in 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004. He scored a total of 1566 championship points over his career.