A Career In Review: Ralf Schumacher
A race winner six times over, it's a shame he is always compared to 91.
Comparisons in F1 are commonplace. At every opportunity we are trying to compare drivers, whether it's the two most exciting rookies on the block, two multiple-time world champions or two greats from different generations. For Ralf Schumacher, comparisons don't serve him too well. Not because he wasn't talented, but because the person he's compared to most holds countless records and can boast seven world championship titles. I am of course referring to Ralf's brother, Michael. Finding anyone who believes Ralf was better would be a massive challenge, but he had a great career in his own right and took numerous race victories.
Ralf's road to F1 started at a very early age, at just 3 years old he was karting on his parents' go-kart track and he started racing competitively as soon as he could. He was successful at many points during his junior career, he won the NRW Cup and the Gold Cup in 1991 and followed this up with victory in the German Junior Kart Championship in 1992. It wasn't until 1996 where he would next pick up a championship victory, but the potential was still evident in the time he wasn't winning titles. Consistency meant he finished 3rd and 2nd in German F3 in 1994 and 1995 respectively, and in that time he won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix.
1996 was the breakout year for Schumacher as he won Formula Nippon and tested for McLaren at Silverstone. This was enough to persuade Jordan to offer Schumacher a three year contract starting in 1997. The 21-year-old duly accepted and joined fellow youngster Giancarlo Fisichella. At this point Fisichella had just 8 races under his belt, meaning Jordan would go into 1997 with a very inexperienced lineup.
Ralf's debut season had its good moments of promise and bad moments of inexperience, as you can expect from a rookie. It took just 3 races for Schumacher to achieve a podium finish, he finished 3rd in Argentina, although it did come after a collision with his teammate which forced him to retire. Other low scoring points followed in the year and he amassed 11 points for the year. He narrowly lost to Fisichella in terms of points, however he would have little chance for retribution as he left the team for 1998 and in his place came the 1996 champion Damon Hill.
Jordan started the season terribly and neither Schumacher nor Hill had achieved any points after 8 races. A few more encouraging results came in midseason, before one of the craziest races of all time took place at Spa which saw Jordan achieve a 1/2 finish. Unfortunately for Schumacher it was Hill who took the victory, even more frustrating is the fact that team orders were used to keep Schumacher behind at a time where he believed he was quicker. This strained Schumacher's relationship with the team and might have been the cause for his move to Williams for the 1999 season.
Jordan celebrates a 1/2 but should it have been the other way round?
Schumacher's teammate for 1999 was Alessandro Zanardi who struggled all year and failed to score points. Unsurprisingly this didn't help them in the Constructors' Championship, but on a personal level Schumacher enjoyed some success. He scored in all but five races and added three podiums to his tally. This included a second place finish at Monza where he finished just 3 seconds off the lead. His good season was rewarded as his contract was extended.
2000 was a similar tale, once again Schumacher changed teammates with rookie Jenson Button taking the other seat, and once again it was Schumacher who came out on top. It was another season with three podiums, but ultimately it was winless once again. He now had 9 podiums without that elusive win. Fortunately, 2001 would change that.
For 2001, Ralf was joined by Juan Pablo Montoya, the two would form a partnership for four seasons. The team made a lot of progress coming into 2001 and it showed as both Ralf and Juan Pablo won races in the year, however the cars were also fairly unreliable which prevented a serious championship run. Schumacher picked up his long awaited first win at Imola after leading every lap of the race, he followed this up with wins at Canada and a home win in Germany. He also got the better of his teammate, meaning he was still unbeaten at Williams.
The San Marino GP of 2001. Ralf's first win
Ferrari enjoyed one of the most dominant seasons of all-time in 2002 and left the rest of the paddock, including Williams, for dust. They failed to win just two races all season, one of which (Malaysia) went to Ralf as he won by nearly 40 seconds. Despite taking one race win to Juan Pablo's none, it was the Colombian who finished 3rd in the championship, with Ralf just behind in 4th.
After Ferrari's domination of 2002, it was a much closer battle in 2003 with McLaren and Williams having legitimate chances of dethroning the Scuderia. Schumacher was hampered by a below average start to the season where he was unable to pick up a podium in his first 7 races. A midseason surge which included back-to-back victories left him just 11 points off the championship lead, but the charge fell away as he struggled at the end of the season and had to be content with 5th.
Consistently finishing 4th and 5th in the championship proves the talent Schumacher had, but he struggled to piece together one special season he needed to win a championship. That wouldn't come in 2004 either as Ferrari regained their dominance. Schumacher endured a tough season before suffering a massive crash at the US Grand Prix. The incident gave Ralf a concussion and prevented him from competing for 6 races. He returned for the final 3 races and achieved his best finish of the season, a second place at the Japanese GP. This would be his last podium for Williams as he moved on to Toyota for 2005 after 6 years with the team.
The massive collision that kept Ralf out of action for 6 races
Schumacher formed a solid partnership with Jarno Trulli at Toyota and the move away from Williams paid off when Toyota beat them to 4th in the Constructors' Championship. Jarno enjoyed some great success at the beginning of the year whilst Ralf struggled slightly to get to grips with the car, but he had the better of the second half of the season which included a few podiums. Ralf finished the season 6th, one place and two points above his teammate. Unfortunately, this was the most competitive Toyota would be in his time with the team.
Things got progressively worse for the team in 2006 and 2007. Ralf achieved his 27th podium at the Australian Grand Prix, it would end up being his final one as the team struggled throughout the year as Ralf obtained just 20 points, his lowest points haul since 1998. Things got even worse in 2007, Schumacher scored a total of 5 points, his 6th place in Hungary proved to be his final points in F1.
Schumacher's final podium came in Australia, 2006
Schumacher did his best to find a race seat for 2008 and was heavily linked to a Toro Rosso seat, but nothing came of it. A further attempt at a move to McLaren failed and Schumacher was out of a seat for the first time in 12 years. There were further talks of him returning in 2010 as new teams such as HRT and Virgin required drivers, but Ralf rejected all of the propositions.
Assessing Ralf's career is difficult and before you can make any sort of judgement, big brother's achievements have to be discarded. Comparing the two is an easy thing to do due to their relation, but on circuit they are two unique and individual drivers who deserve to be assessed just like anyone else would. Schumacher was talented, there's no doubt about that, the question is how talented.
Was he a good driver? Definitely. Was he a great driver? Possibly. Was he an elite driver? No. Finishing between 4th and 6th in the championship is impressive and it's something that Ralf achieved six times, but making the step from championship outsider to championship contender is something that separates the best and it's something Ralf couldn't do.
Don't get me wrong, Ralf deserves more credit than he gets. His tally of 27 podiums is higher than that of 11 world champions and less than 50 drivers have achieved six wins or more. So whilst he might not have achieved elite level, he definitely deserves to be referred to as a talented, Grand Prix winning driver, rather than just the brother of a seven time world champion.
Join In
Comments (5)
The best thing in this article: Eddie Jordan's face after the 1-2.
It's the best thing about every article
You pointed it out, but consistency was Ralf’s weakness. He could be blindingly quick on occasions but never on a regular basis.
I agree that he was a great driver and his raw speed was among the best. Even Montoya thought he was unbeatable on his day:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8nVcJfEnAY
It is said that the big bosses of Toyota made it clear they had to have Schumacher. No expenses would be too big. Unfortunately someone fucked up at chose the wrong Schumacher.