Ralf Schumacher
|
Official Website: Official Website
Place of Birth: Hurth-Hermulheim
Resides: Monte Carlo
Status: Single
Height: 1.78m
Weight: 73kg
Career previous to F1: 1996 Japan F3000 Champion
Races: 101
Wins: 4 (4.0%)
Podiums: 20 (19.8%)
Pole Positions: 1 (1.0%)
Retirements: 38 (37.6%)
Points Accumulated: 178.000
Debut: 09 Mar 1997
Last Race: 09 Mar 2003
First Win: 15 Apr 2001
Last Win: 17 Mar 2002
First Pole: 01 Jul 2001
Last Pole: 01 Jul 2001 |
View a complete listing of Ralf Schumacher's Formula 1 results
Driver History
As the younger brother of triple world champion Michael Schumacher,
Ralf has had a lot to live up to, but he's now established himself
in his own right.
He has followed an almost identical path to his brother within
motor sport, through karts, F3 and then breaking in to F1 with the
Jordan team in 1997.
A podium place arrived in only his third race (Buenos Aires) but
his race was marred by a collision which took out team-mate Giancarlo
Fisichella on lap 24. In fact he had five further accidents, including
one with his brother that season, although when his impetuosity
did not get the better of him he did well with six points finishes.
The first half of the '98 season was dreadful for Jordan with the
car either unreliable or uncompetitive -coupled with some poor performances
from Ralf. However, as the season progressed Jordan's and Schumacher's
performances progressed culminating in top six finishes. At Spa
Schumacher finished second behind team-mate Damon Hill although
team orders had instructed him not to challenge for the lead, he
followed that up with a solid third at Monza a fortnight later.
Unhappy at the team orders at Spa plus two retirements towards
the end of the 1998 season caused Ralf to look for another team.
After much wrangling, Ralf managed to extricate himself from his
Jordan contract and a move to Williams for 1999.
He immediately began to repay his new team with some excellent
drives in the early half of season, including two podium spots at
Melbourne and Silverstone. In the European GP he was desperately
unlucky not to take his first GP win.
2000 brought a new Williams team mate for Ralf, rookie Jenson Button,
and the German found himself out-qualified by the youngster on more
than one occasion.
Despite this, Ralf had a reasonable season, finishing 'best of
the rest' in the Drivers' Championship, in fifth behind the Ferrari
and McLaren drivers. Ralf was keen to keep his 2000 team-mate a
bit longer, but had to contend with Juan-Pablo Montoya from 2001
onwards.
Ralf started well with a win in San Marino after which his manager
Willi Weber got his timing right and negotiated an extension to
his contract. But the second half of the year proved frustrating
as Schumacher fell into the rut of the previous season and started
to get outqualified at circuits where Montoya was driving for the
first time.
However Ralf had stepped firmly out of his brother's shadow and
was a different driver to the one who found getting off the line
so difficult in 1998. He scored three wins at Imola, Montreal and
Hockenheim - something his brother had yet to achieve. He finished
the season 4th overall with 49 points.
In 2002 he found it more difficult to keep up with Montoya, especially
when JPM put together a run of five successive pole positions. Unlike
previous years he came back strongly - a little too strongly in
races where it seemed the two Williams drivers were involved in
their own personal battle.
Ralf's win in Sepang was the team's only race victory of the year,
but it came courtesy of a first corner accident between Michael
and JPM. For the first time at Williams he had been outscored by
a team-mate, finishing 4th with 42 points. Shock of the year was
in Austria where Ralf turned up with blond hair something he explained
away as, "the hairdresser made a very bad mistake".
Faced with the overwhelming superiority of the Ferrari package,
Ralf and Juan will have to get their act together in 2003.
|
