Michael Schumacher
Course: LSS 3003
Sports, Leisure, and Society
Student name: Ahmed Hashem Eissa
ID: H00247673
Section: CIQ
Instructor: Hedley Butterfield
Word count: 1012
Childhood
Michael Schumacher was born on
the 3rd of January 1969. He was born in a town called Hurth, North
Rhine Westphalia which is in the west of Germany; when Schumacher was a little
kid at an age of four, his father added a motorcycle engine to his pedal kart.
However, he crashed into a street lamp, so his parents knew that they should
take him to the karting track. And he became a member of the karting club.
When he became six his father made
him a kart from junk stuff and he won his first club Championship; laws in
Germany required a driver to be 14 years old or older to get a kart license,
but Schumacher got his license when he was 12 years old in Luxembourg; after he
became 14 he got his German license and he won the Junior championship in
Germany before a year, when he had the Luxembourgian license.
After 1984 Schumacher won a lot
in European kart championships and by 1987 he was the European and German kart
winner; after that he left his school and became a mechanic, and he made his
first racing car and by joining in the Formula Ford and Formula Konig and
wining them later.
Early years
By the year 1989, Schumacher
joined the Willi Weber’s WTS Formula Three team, which was funded by Weber. And
he won the Formula three series in 1990, and then he joined the Mercedes junior
racing program. In1990 Schumacher won the World Sports Car Championship in a
Sauber Mercedes C11 and finished in the 5th place even though he
only raced in 3 of 9 races, and he won again in the final race at Autopolis in
Japan in a Sauber Mercedes Benz c291, and he also raced at Le Mans and finished
in 5th in a car shared with his colleague. And then he raced in the
Japanese Formula 3000 Championship in 1991, and finished in 2nd place.
In 1991 Schumacher finished with
four points from six races; the best finish was being 5th in the
second race. In the Italian Grand Prix he finished ahead of his team mate and
the three times world champion Nelson Piquet.
Then he finished 3rd
in the Mexican Grand Pix, and he took his first win at the Belgian Grand Pix;
the circuit was wet at the Spa Francorchamps circuit, which he called far and away his favorite track, he finished
in the Drivers Championship in 1992 with 52 points.
At the start of the next year
season Mercedes contracted with Schumacher; they said if they will enter the
Formula One, Schumacher would drive for them.
In 1994 – 1995 Schumacher won six
of seven races and he was leading the Spanish Grand Prix, he had a problem with
his gear box which was the gear sticking in the 5th and he finished
in the 2nd place; the McLaren gear software allowed automatics
shifts and was considered a launch control that allowed Schumacher to make excellent starts; it was outlawed by regulations;
they didn’t find any evidence that it was being used at the British Grand Prix.
Then in 1995
Schumacher got his title in Benetton. He
had more than 33 points and took the first Constructors Championship and he
became the youngest world 2 times champion in Formula One.
Ferrari
Schumacher moved
in with Ferrari in 1996; Ferrari’s last Championship was in 1979, and Constructors
Championship in 1983; the salary for Schumacher was 60 million dollars in two years after he left
the Benetton. He left before his contract even finished; after a year the
Benetton employees joined Ferrari.
Ferrari had come close to winning championships
in 1990 and 1982; the Ferrari team suffered in the first years of the nineties,
because the big V12 engine couldn’t stay up with the smaller, lighter and stronger
V10 engines, and the crew of the pit stop had a very weak performance. But at the
end of 1995 Ferrari team performance improved and became acceptable and Schumacher said it’s enough to win the Championship. Schumacher and his other team mates made Ferrari one of the
most successful teams in Formula One.
In 1996
Schumacher came 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship and Ferrari
became 2nd in the
Constructors’ Championship, He won 3 races and that’s more than what Ferrari
won during 1991 until 1995. There was a problem with the car and he only finished
6 of 16 races. He had his first win for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Schumacher’s performance with the improved
Ferrari staff made a challenge to other teams.
World
Championships
Schumacher
won Championships and races more than the
other drivers in the history. He won his 3rd World Championship in
2000, and in 2001 he won the 4th drivers title, and in 2002 he used
the Ferrari F2002 to go back to his Drivers Championship. Schumacher broke the world record of Juan Manuel Fangio
of 5 world Championships by winning his 6th Drivers
Championship title in 2003. Schumacher had the biggest competition from McLaren
Mercedes and Williams BMW teams.
Schumacher
won a record of winning 12 of 13 races of the season and failing in one because
of an accident. He got the 7th Driver title at the Belgian Grand
Prix.
Schumacher’s retirement
After he won the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Schumacher confirmed his retirement; in 2007 he became
an advisor at Ferrari, and in 2008 he kept helping Ferrari to develop the F1
Cars and testing them for them.
In 2009 the Ferrari driver Massa had
an injury during the race and they had to choose Schumacher to replace him, and then Ferrari announced that
they will put Schumacher in the
European Grand Prix until Massa recovered from his injury.
Returning to Formula One
Schumacher announced
that he would be returning to Formula One in 2010 with his fellow German driver Nico
Rosberg in the new Mercedes GP team and signed a 3 year contract which was
worth £
20 million. He stayed in Mercedes Benz until he retired again in 2012.
References
