Magnificent seventh for Schumacher
By Robert-Jan Bartunek for CNN
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| | SCHUMACHER FACT BOX | Born: January 3, 1969
Nationality: German
World titles: 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
Races won: 82
Pole Positions: 62
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(CNN) -- Another world championship -- his seventh. Some might think Michael Schumacher has made Formula One predictable or even boring.
But there is one thing even his fiercest critics can't deny: Michael Schumacher is, and will for quite some time remain, the most successful driver ever to steer an F1 car.
Schumacher started his racing career, like so many others, in karting. Not a surprise, as his parents owned the local karting track in Kerpen near Cologne.
A long and successful karting career followed until he made the step into single seater racing in 1989 coming in third in his debut season in German F3.
In 1990, instead of moving on to F3000, Schumacher decided to try world sports cars signing up for the Mercedes junior team together with his former F3 teammate Heinz-Harald Frenzten and 1989 F3 champion Karl Wendlinger.
Schumacher was the first of the three to graduate to F1. When Belgian driver Bertrand Gachot was imprisoned for spraying CS gas into a London taxi driver's face, Eddie Jordan was quick to sign up Schumacher for his F1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Qualifying seventh, he retired on the first lap with clutch failure, but he had done enough to catch the attention of Benetton boss Flavio Briatore, who gave Schumacher a seat for the rest of the season.
His first victory came exactly a year after his debut as he won at Belgium's demanding Spa circuit, his favorite track. Schumacher clinched another victory in 1993, setting up what looked set to be a thrilling showdown with Ayrton Senna in 1994.
Schumacher would beat the legendary Brazilian Senna in the opening two races of the season, but Senna's fatal crash at Imola brought their flourishing rivalry to a tragic and premature end.
Despite a two-race ban for ignoring a black flag during the British Grand Prix, Schumacher went on to claim the first of back-to-back championships for Benetton.
In 1996 Schumacher moved on to Ferrari. The Italian team were in bad shape at that time, lacking leadership and a disciplined team structure. But Schumacher brought technical director Ross Brawn with him from Benetton, and the pair embarked on a long and tedious journey to transform the prancing horses from Maranello into today's perfectionist outfit.
Schumacher's car was up to scratch in 1999 but he was injured at the British Grand Prix and had to wait another year to win Ferrari's first drivers' championship since Jody Scheckter in 1979.
That was in 2000 and Schumacher has not been off the top spot since, clinching his fifth title in a row on Sunday at Spa to further strengthen his claim to the title of greatest F1 driver ever.
Others may be quick as well but nobody manages to organize a team around him as well as Schumacher.
As for retirement, Schumacher refuses to be drawn on the issue, turning the question back on curious journalists by asking them when they plan to retire from asking him about his future.
