One of the all-time greatest drivers and arguably the most controversial - winning the FIA World Driver's Championship a record seven times between 1994 and 2004 but was involved in many memorable (and some say, unsportsman-like) on-track incidents during that time. Clashes with Damon Hill (1994), Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and the infamous qualifying "stall" at Monaco in 2006 sullied his image somewhat, but his strategy and racecraft were second to none - especially in the wet.

Having driven well in karting, Formula Ford and F3, he was given a seat at the Mercedes Junior world sportscar team (partnering Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger) in 1990. The following year Jordan hired him to temporarily replace Betrand Gachot at the Belgian GP and Schumacher shocked the establishment by qualifying 7th. Though his race ended on the first lap when the gearbox failed, he was immediately signed by Benetton to partner Nelson Piquet for the rest of the season (much to the chagrin of Eddie Jordan). Schumacher out-qualified Piquet in all but one of the remaining races and by the end of 1990 the young German had become leader of the team.

To be continued...

* Disqualified following incident at European GP

When Felipe Massa suffered a serious accident at the 2009 Hungarian GP, Schumacher prepared to replace him for the rest of the season but because of a neck injury suffered while motorcycle racing the return to the cockpit was aborted. This led to talks with Ross Brawn and Mercedes, for whom he raced at sports cars in 1990 and 1991, and after 3 years of retirement his return was confirmed in December 2009.

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