Born in Germany, Schumacher spent 14 years in his native land before setting out to conquer the world of motorsports. He raced in Karts from 1983-1988 leaving for single seater racing with 3 German Karting Championships, a 2nd and 3rd place position and a European Championship.

In 1988, Schumacher was Champion in Formula Konig (Germany), 6th in the German Formula Ford 1600 Series and 2nd in the European Formula Ford 1600 Series. 1989 had him being called for a test drive at WTS Racing owned by Wili Weber who later became his manager. He astonished everyone by being 1.5 seconds faster than the regular driver and was quickly signed up to the Formula 3 team. Schumacher finished 3rd overall but improved this in 1990 when he took the German F3 Championship. He competed and won in Macau but also in 3 non-championship races; Fuji, Hockenheim and Le Mans. He was disqualified from Le Mans for re-starting the race in a different car than he had origionally! This brazenness was carried through later to his Formula One career.

1990 also saw him expand into sportscars as he raced for the McLaren junior team and Sauber. The group C cars were difficult to handle but Schumacher finished 5th and 9th as well as later being the team World Champion. 1991 was the beginning of Michael Schumacher's greatest challenge. He had reached the highest pinnacle of racing. He began with team Jordan but was 'poached' by Benetton and finished the season in 12th place overall.

Schumacher had definitely 'arrived' by 1992 and set shockwaves through F1 by finishing 3rd overall in the Championship and winning his first F1 race. He was 4th in 1993 but again was on the podium with a win. It would be a season later before the world really met Michael Schumacher.

1994 was full of the controversy that is now a trademark of Schumacher. During the Season he was disqualified twice and banned for two races but after 8 victories and a dubious collision with British driver Damon Hill, which tipped the scales, Schumacher was pronounced Formula One World Champion. He became a phenomenon. He had done this at an age which was younger than either Clark, Prost or Senna when they had become World Champions themselves. 9 victories and another astounding World Championship followed in 1995 making Michael Schumacher the first back to back Champion since Prost in 1986.

Ferrari beckoned for 1996 and Schumacher answered. He rejuvenated the flailing team and finished 3rd in the Championship. Ferrari were moulded around him and with an injection of new blood following him from Benetton as well as an increased budget and the support of Irishman Eddie Irvine had hopes up for the following season.

Schumacher's association with trouble and controversy emerged again in 1997. He was disqualified by the FIA from his 2nd place position in the drivers championship due to an incident at the last race in Jerez. Schumacher saw his title hopes vanish when Jacques Villenueve, from some distance back, lunged past the Ferrari to take the lead. Schumacher was caught on camera firstly turning his wheel away then very deliberately turning it back and the Ferrari into the side of Villeneuve's Williams.

He was again 2nd in the Championship in 1998 despite unusual wins like the British Grand Prix where he won the race in the pitlane after stopping for a penalty from earlier on in the race. He forced fellow German Heinz-Harald Frentzen off the track in Canada provoking protests from the Williams team and stormed the garage of rivals McLaren after an incident involving Scotsman David Coulthard in Belgium, where Schumacher ran into the back of the McLaren in severe wet conditions following an unfortunate misunderstanding.

1999 and he started the season badly but slowly got going only to end up in the tyre wall at Silverstone which broke his left leg. A miracle was to happen as within 6 races he was back in Malaysia and took pole and helped Irvine to victory, Japan and again took pole but settled for 2nd in the race. Many people claiming it was deliberate to stop Irvine winning the championship. Everyone is sure that if it was not for his accident then he would of been WC.

Michael Schumacher took back the world drivers title in 2000 with a very up and down season which at one stage looked like he wasn't going to do it. Taking 3 opening wins in the season got him off to a great start but then it went wrong and in the middle of the season was taken out twice on the first corner in Germany and Austria. With his lead now gone and Hakkinen in charge, Italy came and from then onwards he took pole and the race win for the rest of the season to claim the title. Turning points was the break down in the Italian GP press conference and claiming it was because of the Italian crowd.

Another title for Schumacher in 2001 and a host of records broken in the season. The idea of retirement for Schumacher is probably not in his head. He now leads records for race wins ever, most points scored in a season. No one really touched him and he pretty much had it easy although a wobbly patch came in Italy and American where he just couldn't get his head around what happened on September 11th in America.

2002 and Michael did almost the impossible and has now broken nearly all records in the history of F1. In doing this he got his 5th world title after dominating the championship in the F2002. The records broken this year include: 11 race wins in one season, 19 consecutive podium places, 22 consecutive finishes, 144 points in one season and finally the closest ever F1 finish with Rubens Barrichello at the US GP. The season did have its ups and downs though as Ferrari, Schumacher and Barrichello were all pulled up infront of the FIA due to race fixing in Austria where on the final corner Rubens pulled over to let Michael win the race. Ferrari confirmed this was to get the maximum points for Michael so he can wrap up the title as quick as possible.

Michael faced a big task in 2003 as a change of rules to F1 bought on tougher qualifying and a different points system. Both these factors didn't help Michaels cause and the season started off quite hard for Michael as Ferrari run the F2002 then Spain was when the F2003 GA was released and Michael was back ontop winning races. But both Williams and Mclaren were alot tougher than last season and it went right down to the wire before Michael took the title from Kimi by only 2 points. The F2003 GA not being as dominate as 2002 and this mainly was due to the chassis being inbalanced, although Ferrari never claimed it to be. Tyres were a massive factor in the title race with Michelin really the better of the two companies. Under cool and wet conditions Bridgestone were the masters but anything about 20C and Michelins were in the zone, unfortunatly most GP's were held in over 20C.

More or less a repeat of the 2002 season, Michael was unstopable and romped away with 13 race victories out of 18, 7 of those in a row. 8 poles aswell. Bridgestone really got there act together and had a far more consistant tyre for the 2004 season and could go further into the race than the Michelin runners. F2004 was the most reliable car on the grid aswell with no mechanical failures throughout the whole season.

The worse season for Ferrari since the 80's. The F2005 was a disaster of car that just was not working and with Bridgestone really no providing competitive tyres Michael was struggling to finish in the points. He won the US GP after 80% of the grid pulled out and was only a second away from winning the San Marino GP. He managed one pole in Hungary. Overall he managed to scrap through and finished 3rd in the drivers championship.

The season to retire on and Michael was close to making it 8 World Champions but luck wasn't on his side. After dropping nearly 40points behind Alonso at the beginning of the season he clawed back the points with wins at Nurburgring, Imola, Indianapolis, Magny Cours and Hockenheim. By China it was neck and neck but a rare engine failure in Japan put pay to Michael's chances. Michael announced his retirement at the Italian GP during the post race press conference where he was beaten to the post by Ferrari who released a press release as soon as Michael crossed the line.

To date Michael is thought to be working behind the scenes for Ferrari in 2007 but nothing has been officially confirmed.