Remembering Michael Schumacher’s first F1 world title

From the moment he arrived on the F1 grid, filling in for Jordan at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher was a superstar. He qualified seventh on his debut, seven-tenths quicker than his hugely experienced team-mate Andre de Cesaris, only to suffer a clutch failure on the opening lap.

He was immediately snapped up by the Benetton team for the following round at Monza - much to Eddie Jordan’s chagrin - going on to score points in his next three races. A remarkable feat when you consider points were only paid to the top six finishers. It’s even more remarkable when you remember that his team-mate was no second fiddle; rather, three-time world champion Nelson Piquet. After just six rounds at the end of the 1991 season, there was no doubt of Schumacher’s enormous potential. He was a champion in the making.

Over the next two seasons, he and his team Benetton made a climb through the ranks in concert. He finished in the points in all but one of the races he finished in 1992 and took his first F1 victory at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. Things got better still in ’93 as he finished on the podium in all of the nine races in which he saw the chequered flag, adding a second race win at the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix.

By the beginning of 1994, Schumacher had cemented his place as one of the very best drivers on the grid, second perhaps only to the enigmatic Ayrton Senna. Reigning champion Alain Prost had retired at the end of 1993, and it was expected that Senna would walk away with the title following his move to the dominant Williams team.

But Williams’ dominance had been maintained mainly through a reliance on technology. Its superior active suspension system coupled with ABS and numerous other driver aids made it the outstanding car of 1992 and ’93 but the removal of those for the 1994 season kicked Williams’ performance into the dirt. Senna himself, having spent two seasons being vastly outpaced by Mansell and then Prost had been a vocal advocate for the change. But with a new level playing field, it was Benetton that made a surprising jump to the very front of the grid at the start of the 1994 season.

It was a mouth-watering prospect. To have Senna and Schumacher duking it out in what appeared to be two different cars each capable of winning races that year. And the opening round in Brazil offered a glimpse at what everyone hoped would follow for the rest of the year. Senna took pole and the pair showcased speed in a different echelon to the rest of the grid, but as Senna faltered, Schumacher took victory.

Round two at the Pacific Grand Prix was a similar story. Senna was again on pole ahead of Schumacher but it was the German who claimed victory once again as the three-time champion retired after a spin.

With Schumacher comfortably ahead in the drivers’ championship, F1 arrived at Imola for the San Marino Grand Prix. Not all was well, however, as allegations had started to arise that Benetton were, in essence, cheating. The Williams team had noted the extraordinary speed of Benetton’s pit stops and suggested there must be something afoot to allow them to refuel the car so quickly. There had also been suggestions in the press that several cars were running illegal traction control systems. Following his retirement from the Pacific Grand Prix, Senna raised his own suspicions that the Benetton was one such car. The FIA was unable to conclusively investigate and no action was taken, much to the Brazilian’s frustration. Had evidence of the use of traction or launch control been found, however, the FIA stated Benetton risked exclusion from the world championship.

That weekend at Imola will forever be remembered for the tragedies that unfolded over three awful days. The deaths of both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna remain etched in the minds of every motorsport fan and F1 has never been the same. Schumacher won the race comfortably but there were no celebrations that day. The paddock was plunged into darkness and the sport no longer mattered.

Two weeks later, however, in Monaco the show did go on. Though the front two spaces on the grid were left empty in memory of Senna and Ratzenberger, the race began as it always did, only this time it was Schumacher on pole, his nearest rival Mika Hakkinen almost one second slower. He won his fourth race in a row to open up a 30-point lead in the world championship. With the loss of Senna, it looked as though the Schumacher juggernaut would be impossible to stop.

It was stopped however at the Spanish Grand Prix. Williams finally achieved an emotional victory courtesy of Damon Hill. But even in defeat, it was Schumacher who came away as the standout performer. Finishing second it transpired that his Benetton car was stuck in fifth gear for most of the race and in normal circumstances Schumacher should never have been able to finish. Somehow he was able to manage the issue and drive lap after lap under incredible stress, even completing and pulling away from a pitstop. It was a remarkable performance.

Schumacher returned to winning form with victories in Canada and France, and he arrived at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix with a 37-point cushion ahead of Damon Hill. At this stage, after only seven rounds, the German was champion elect. Yet things were still far from comfortable behind the scenes; Benetton was embroiled in a heated exchange with the FIA over the legality of its cars. Several back and forths between the two parties had seen the use of traction control brought into question. Benetton’s electronic systems were found to have allowed for the use of traction control, although the team insisted this option had never been considered. A court hearing was scheduled for the weekend following the British Grand Prix.

Perhaps the stress of the situation was beginning to manifest because what unfolded at Silverstone served to put Schumacher’s championship into serious doubt. Having qualified second on the grid behind Hill, he overtook the Brit twice on the formation lap, and then, following an aborted start, did the same thing on the second formation lap. No overtaking is allowed on the formation lap, aside from when a car is delayed from leaving the grid, and so 14 laps into the race, Schumacher was handed a five-second stop-go penalty to be served within three laps.

By lap 21, he was still yet to stop and the black flag was shown. Schumacher however ignored the flag for not one, but three laps. It later transpired that the Benetton team had furiously refuted the decision during the race, claiming they had not been correctly notified of the initial penalty decision. Schumacher eventually came in to serve his five-second stop-go on lap 27, but the damage, it turned out, had already been done.

In the aftermath of the race, Benetton was fined £25,000 (later increased to £500,000), and Schumacher was reprimanded for ignoring the black flag. Further to the initial penalty, the FIA World Motorsport Council not only disqualified Schumacher from the result of the British Grand Prix (he had finished second behind Hill), but he was also given a two-race ban. Out of nowhere, the championship battle had been thrown wide open.

Benetton appealed the ban, and managed to delay the decision and allow Schumacher to race at his home German Grand Prix. He suffered his worst performance of the season, however, qualifying only fourth and succumbing to an engine failure on lap 20.

The turmoil of Benetton’s season continued as Schumacher’s team-mate Jos Verstappen was engulfed in a fire during his pit stop. It transpired that Benetton had removed a filter from the fuel nozzle. Its purpose was to protect the nozzle from debris, but its removal allowed fuel to flow faster, thus giving Benetton an advantage of around one second per pitstop. It was found later that Benetton had removed the filter without the intention of cheating.

A win in Hungary helped to stem the tide but Schumacher was disqualified again from the Belgian Grand Prix after his car was found to have excessive wear of the plank, a new safety feature introduced in the aftermath of Senna’s accident at Imola.

To make matters worse, Schumacher’s two-race ban was upheld following Benetton’s appeal and he was forced to miss the following two races in Italy and Portugal. By the time he returned to the grid in Jerez for the European Grand Prix, his championship lead had been reduced to just one point as Damon Hill won four races as Schumacher’s transgressions mounted. With three rounds to go, the battle was set to go down to the wire.

Williams had sorted out the issues which had plagued its early form, and Hill was now the form driver with Schumacher’s season reduced to chaos. The German, however, was not done yet.

He stuck it on pole ahead of Hill and fought off the Brit to take victory and stretch his advantage at the top of the standings. He qualified on pole again at the Japanese Grand Prix, and led the early going in horrific weather conditions before a red flag brought the race to a halt. The rain eased, and the race was resumed, with the final result to be decided on an aggregate of the two mini races. Hill stormed to victory following the red flag restart, and built up enough of a margin to beat Schumacher on aggregate.

The gap in the championship was back down to just a single point, and it all came down to the final round of the season in Adelaide.

We all know what happened next. What might be the most famous piece of F1 footage on the planet is the moment Schumacher’s Benetton sprang onto two wheels after colliding with Hill’s Williams. Despite outcry from many of F1’s loudest - and often most British - voices, Schumacher was never charged with any wrongdoing and the damage to Hill’s car ensured the result.

Michael Schumacher became Germany’s first ever F1 world champion. He’d made good on what most assumed was his destiny, redefining what it took to be a top-level racing driver, and pushing the limits as far as they could go in the process.

But that was only the beginning of what went on to become the most successful F1 career of all time, until a certain Lewis Hamilton embarked on his own record-breaking run. Schumacher’s first title was his most hard-fought and controversial and indeed, set the precedent for his career. Admittedly many of his struggles were of his own making but to be disqualified from two races and banned from two more and still come out on top of the world took some doing. He made it so.

Whatever you think of the 1994 season, Schumacher made sure that he was the World Champion. Questionable as some of his decisions may have been, they do speak of a man who drove to victory as if it was his birthright – a champion’s mindset.

Happy birthday Michael. Keep fighting.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.