Michael Schumacher drove in his first kart race at the age
of five. Although father Rolf was not enthusiastic about his son's expensive kart
ambitions, the boy was able to pursue his career because from time to time he
received financial support from local sponsors. Rolf had built his first kart
and registered him in the Kart-Club Kerpen-Horrem.
His enthusiasm for kart-driving
continued to grow. In 1980, the members of the Kerpen kart club built a new track
in Manheim, a suburb of Kerpen. Michael and his brother Ralf spent every free
minute there. Michael was still too young for championship races and he had to
wait until 1983 for his German kart licence. In 1984, he promptly became German
Junior Champion. In 1985 he won the German Junior Championships again and also
came second in the Junior World Championships in Le Mans. In 1986 he took part
in the German Senior Kart Championships for the first time, and at his very first
attempt came third in the final rankings. The same thing happened at the European
Senior Championships. In 1987 he had his greatest triumph yet, Michael Schumacher
won both the German and the European Senior Kart Championships. In 1988,
Michael Schumacher embarked on his first season in a Formula racing car. Finally
he was able to show what he had learnt in his kart days. However, the step-up
proved to be difficult, he had to turn down an offer of a test drive in a Formula
Ford, because he didn't have the necessary DM 500 required to start. At
the next test opportunity, he signed a contract with the Euphra Formula Ford team.
Team manager Jurgen Dilk also secured Michael Schumacher a place in Formula Konig.
Here Michael showed his natural talent and easily won nine races out of ten, which
also assured him of the championship. In Formula Ford 1600 he was placed
sixth in the final rankings, and in the European Championships he came second
behind the Finn Mika Salo. At the end of 1988, Michael Schumacher drew
the attention of Willi Weber, who was looking for up-and-coming talents. During
a Formula Ford race on the rain-soaked Salzburgring, Michael stormed from 7th
to 1st place during just one lap. Weber invited him to a test drive in
his WTS (Weber Tuning Stuttgart) Formula 3 team. At the test drive, Schumacher
was at once a sensational 1.5 seconds faster than the established team member.
A two-year contract for 1989 and 1990 was signed; Willi Weber took over the costs
(ca. DM 1 million for both seasons). In his first Formula 3 season in 1989,
Michael Schumacher won two races and ended the championships just one point behind
in third place, after Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The champion was Karl Wendlinger.
For Schumacher's further progress after Formula 3, Willi Weber planned
years of apprenticeship with Mercedes-Benz in the Group C World Championship.
He rejected the route via Formula 3000. Schumacher was to learn how to deal
with the press professionally, attend courses in rhetoric and conduct interviews
in English. With regard to the racing aspect, he learnt how to cope with the car's
high-level performance (nearly 700 HP) and its high speed. His experienced co-pilot
Jochen Mass showed him how to tune a car professionally. Apart from this, Schumacher
learnt race tactics and to drive in such a way as to conserve the materials over
a long period of time. As the current German Formula 3 champion, Michael
Schumacher took part in the unofficial Formula 3 World Championships in 1990.
In Macao, Schumi had to contend with his greatest rival Mika Hakkinen,
as had happened at the Formula 3 season finale in Hockenheim. Michael Schumacher
won the race. In this way, he defeated the best up-and-coming talents in the world
- this was his international breakthrough. In Fuji, at another international
Formula 3 race, he was again the first to pass under the black-and-white checked
flag. In 1990, Michael Schumacher managed to win something he'd just missed
out on in the previous year - the Formula 3 championship title. And this
although the season hadn't exactly started positively: he had to drop out from
the first two races in Zolder and Hockenheim. In the third race on the Nurburgring,
he drove into the points in fifth place. However, Schumacher then hit back;
he won five of the seven remaining races and secured the title before the end
of the season. At the final race in Hockenheim, he took second place behind guest
driver Mika Hakkinen. In 1990, parallel to the Formula 3 season, Michael
Schumacher took part in the Group C World Championships. Here Schumacher,
Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger drove for the Mercedes-Benz junior team.
Michael finished in fifth place in the drivers' leader board and won overall in
the brand championship, together with the other Mercedes drivers in the Sauber
team. Together Schumacher and Jochen Mass won the final race in Mexico
City. Thanks to his commitment to Mercedes, Michael Schumacher had a fantastic
starting position in the fight for a Formula 1 cockpit. In the middle of
August 1991 he made his debut at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa, after being taken
up by the Irishman Eddie Jordan's Ford team without the usual financial hurdles,
thanks to the support of his team-mates and his manager Willi Weber. Afterwards
he ended up with Benetton-Ford, and took part in the remaining races of the season
as part of the Italian knitwear producer's team. As early as his second race for
Benetton, the "greenhorn" gained two World Championship points by coming
in fifth, even managing to finish ahead of his experienced team-mate Nelson Piquet.
Finally he ended this short season in a respectable twelfth place. And
then, as we know, things really got going Nowadays, Michael Schumacher is a five-times
World Champion F1 driver and tops the list of most Grand Prix wins in the history
of Formula One. | 
