Formula One: Special Report- The Controversial Seven time world champion, Michael Schumacher
Formula one is a popular sport amongst motor sport fans all over the world but there were some people that made it recognisable in every household. One such person is Michael Schumacher who is one of those drivers that have proven themselves dominant in
the sport and also attained iconic status off the track.
According to the official website of F1, he is no doubt the greatest driver the sport has ever seen. There would be a very select group of people who would doubt this statement and those would be the anti-Ferrari fans or the critics who just love Ayrton
Senna, but this is a fact that Michael Schumacher does hold the most drivers’ records in Formula One for championships, race wins, fastest laps, pole positions and points scored.
Even though Michael Schumacher is one of the most celebrated champions in F1 history, he has his fare share of controversies. Schumacher debuted his career as early as 1991 at the Belgian Grand Prix for Jordan-Ford team but only for that race and then joined
Benetton-Ford to complete the rest of the season. Later on, he joined Ferrari in 1996 and with that move began the peak of Schumacher’s career. He was always looked upon as an eager and exciting young fresh face in the world of Formula one. Someone who was
ready to prove that he’s not just here to finish races but to win them and sometimes doing whatever it would takes to get that win.
However, in his career he has been involved in a lot of incidents than most other top drivers and these incidents have not always been good for Michael Schumacher. In the 1997 season, Schumacher and Villeneuve were fighting for the championship and during
mid season at Jerez and at the end of the race Schumacher tried to provoke an accident just as Villeneuve was trying to overtake his rival. Unfortunately, for Michael, he had to pay the price for his act of cleverness and retired from the race. Schumacher
was disqualified from the driver’s championship for such behaviour.
He also retired from racing at the end of 2006 season and then stayed on the Ferrari team as an advisor from 2007 to 2009. In all these times there were always rumours of Schumacher making a comeback and when Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was seriously injured
in the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2009, Schumacher tried to make a return by filling in for Massa for the next few races but was unable to do so due to his neck injury. One questions such motives that when a man has retired from sport then why does he make attempts
to return to it? Does he regret his decision? Standing firm and leaving Formula one for good would have been the professional move but not for Michael as he finally made his comeback in the 2010 season by signing a contract with Mercedes Benz for a 3 year
contract. This comeback has not yet bided well for Mr. Schumacher.
In the past however, Schumacher has also been involved in title deciding collisions in 1994 and 1997. In the final race of the 1994 season, Schumacher was leading Damon Hill by a single point in the driver’s championship. During lap 35, Schumacher hit the
side of the track wall and damaged his right wheels and when Hill made a turn at that corner attempting to pass Schumacher from the inside, Schumacher was turning into the corner as well, they both collided and retired from the race, Schumacher won the title
by a single point.
In the 1997 season at the European Grand Prix, Villeneuve was one point behind Schumacher in the driver’s championship and on lap 48 when Villeneuve passed Schumacher and as he did so, Schumacher turned his car into the Williams driver’s car and got retired
from the race, whereas Villeneuve managed to finish in fourth place and thus becoming world champion.
Two weeks after the race the stewards conducted a disciplinary hearing and Schumacher’s actions were deemed as “instinctive yet a serious error” and he was excluded from the 1997 season as a whole. This made him the only driver in Formula One history as
of 2009 to be disqualified from the world championship.
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