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It’s all too easy to forget that Ralf Schumacher is a multiple Grand Prix winner. His last victory was back in 2000 and he has inevitably spent much of his career in the shadow of his older brother. But, with Michael retired, it now falls exclusively to Ralf to maintain the family’s racing tradition. He certainly has the ability to regain the winning habit. Whether he will have the equipment or the motivation this season is another question.
From his early days in karting it was pretty clear Schumacher had talent. He was Germany’s junior champion in 1991 and finished runner-up in the senior series the following season. That same year he also made his single-seater debut, finishing second in his first ADAC BMW Junior race. His first full season in the series, in 1993, yielded second place overall and he swiftly made the move into German Formula Three.
He scored a win and ten podiums in 1994, enough to put him third in the championship. He went one better in ’95, finishing second to Norberto Fontana after three victories. He impressed in the international F3 arena too, coming second in the Masters at Zandvoort and winning the prestigious Macau Grand Prix. From there, Schumacher headed east to Japan’s highly competitive Formula Nippon series. With three victories he became the 1996 champion, taking revenge on Fontana in the process. He also found time to race Japanese GTs and make his Formula One test debut with McLaren, before Jordan signed him up as team mate to Giancarlo Fischella for 1997.
Schumacher made a pretty quick impact in his debut Formula One season. He finished on the podium in only his third Grand Prix, though only after accidentally taking Fisichella out of the race. Despite retiring from over half the events in what was a tumultuous year for the German, a pattern quickly emerged to his performances - when he finished he generally scored. He was back on the podium in ’98, following team mate Damon Hill home in Belgium for a historic Jordan one-two, and then taking third behind the two Ferraris in Italy.
Switching to Williams for 1999, Schumacher began to display a newfound maturity as he was forced to extract pace from an uncompetitive machine. He did a noticeably better job than team mate Alex Zanardi, finishing in the top five on no less than 11 occasions, including a spectacular second place at Monza. In fact, he scored all 35 of Williams’ points that season on his way to sixth place in the drivers’ championship, just behind his brother in the title-winning Ferrari.
Year two of Ralf’s six-year stint with Williams saw the arrival of BMW power. He finished third in the new combination’s first race in Australia, and went on to score two more podiums in the first season on his way to fourth in the championship. At the following year’s San Marino Grand Prix he scored the first win for both himself and BMW Williams, later adding two further successes in Canada and Hockenheim. Once again he finished fourth in the championship.
He repeated that result in 2002, but in a year dominated by Ferrari his only win came in Malaysia. In 2003 he added two more victories to his growing CV at the Nurburgring and Magny-Cours, and this time finished fifth in the championship. After a difficult start to 2004, a heavy crash in the US Grand Prix sidelined him for much of the rest of the season and during his convalescence he was announced as a Toyota driver for 2005. He was passed fit to return for the last three races, making a point by qualifying and finishing second in Japan. He left Williams at the end of 2004 with a tally of six wins and five pole positions.
It took Schumacher some time to find his feet in his new environment at Toyota, and team mate Jarno Trulli often got the better of him in qualifying. However, he impressed the team with his tenacity in races. He finished fifth on his second outing in Malaysia, and was fourth in Bahrain. Fortunately another accident at Indianapolis, again a result of a tyre failure, was not as serious as the first and he bounced back to take his first Toyota podium with third place in Hungary. He then grabbed a superb pole position in Japan, and picked up another third place in the season finale in China, taking him to an encouraging sixth place in the drivers’ championship.
The 2006 season proved to be less rewarding for both Schumacher and Toyota. His only podium came at round three in Australia and he dropped to tenth in the final standings. Reversing that trend will be his - and the team’s - priority for 2007.
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