Michael Schumacher is a German F1 driver who raced from 1991 to 2006, then again from 2010 to 2012. He drove for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. In his career, he earned 91 wins, 155 podiums, and 7 World Driver Championships.

Like most F1 drivers, Schumacher got his start in karting. He started karting when he was 4, became the youngest member of the karting club, and at 6 won his first club championship. His father took on a second job to be able to support his son, and when even that wasn't enough, a local businessman stepped in to supp

In Germany, drivers must be 14 years old to get a kart license, so Schumacher got his license in Luxembourg at the age of twelve. A year after he got his German license, he won the German Junior Kart Championship and went on to win multiple more championships.

In 1988, Schumacher moved into single-seat racing, joining German Formula Ford and Formula Konig, winning the latter. A year later, he signed with Willi Weber’s WTS Formula Three team and was funded by Weber to compete in the German F3 Championship, where he won in 1990. During the 1990 season, he signed with the Mercedes-Benz junior racing programme in the World Sportscar Championship, which was unusual for young drivers. 

In the 1990 World Sportscar Championship, he finished fifth in the championship despite participating in only three of nine races. He continued with the team in 1991, finishing 9th in the championship. 

Schumacher debuted in F1 in 1991 with the Jordan-Ford team at the Belgian Grand Prix as a replacement for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot. His result was impressive as he finished 7th in the midfield Jordan 191 car at a circuit he was mostly unfamiliar with. 

There was an agreement between Jordan and Schumacher’s Mercedes team that he would race for Jordan for the rest of the season, but Schumacher was engaged by Benetton-Ford for the next race following his debut. Jordan applied for an injunction to prevent Schumacher from driving for Benetton, but lost the case as there was no final contract signed.

In 1992, Sauber was planning their entrance into F1 with Mercedes backing them, so they invoked the clause that stated that Schumacher would drive for a Mercedes team if they entered the sport. They eventually came to an agreement that Schumacher would stay with Benetton despite the clause. He went on to finish the season in third place and would finish fourth in 1993.

Schumacher won his first World Drivers’ Championship in 1994 with Benetton in a car that is regarded as the worst championship-winning car. During the season, he faced a two-race ban for ignoring a penalty he received for overtaking Damon Hill on the formation lap, but that didn’t stop him from getting his first championship. He went on to defend his title, winning the championship again in 1995, also winning Benetton their first Constructors’ Championship with teammate Johnny Herbert.

In 1996, Schumacher joined Ferrari, a year before his contract with Benetton ended, and he went on to finish third in the championship. In 1997, Schumacher was disqualified from the Drivers’ Championship due to a risky and controversial move he pulled on Jacques Villeneuve, which wasn’t initially penalised, but later caused the disqualification due to public outrage.

1998 saw Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen battling for the championship, which ended in Schumacher finishing in second place. In 1999, Schumacher lost his chance at winning the championship at the British Grand Prix and finished the season fifth overall, but he did help Ferrari in their win of the Constructors Championship that season. 

The year 2000 marked the start of Schumacher’s five-year-long win streak, during which he won five consecutive World Championships. Alongside his personal wins, he also helped Ferrari win five straight Constructors’ Championships, from 2000 to 2004. He had a particularly impressive season in 2002, where he won 15 out of 17 races. He had another impressive year in 2004 when he won 122 of the first 13 races.

The 2005 season came with regulation changes, specifically that tyres had to last the whole race. This was eventually an issue because Schumacher ended up retiring in 6 of the 19 races and finished third in the championship. 

2006 became the last season in his career with Ferrari when he announced his retirement at the end of the season after finishing second in the championship. Despite retiring from racing, Schumacher stayed with Ferrari as an advisor and as Jean Todt’s right-hand man.

Schumacher's retirement was brief. In 2009, he announced his F1 comeback for 2010 with the new Mercedes GP team, signing a three-year contract. Success proved elusive: he placed 9th in 2010, 8th in 2011, and 13th in 2012. After Mercedes planned to replace him with Lewis Hamilton for the 2013 season, Schumacher retired again at the end of 2012.

In December 2013, Schumacher was skiing with his son, Mick, in the French Alps. He was an experienced skier, but while crossing an unsecured area, he fell and hit his head on a rock, suffering a serious head injury. His physicians said that if he hadn’t wearing a helmet, he would have died then. 

He was airlifted to a hospital and underwent two surgeries before being put into a medically induced coma. He started showing moments of consciousness in April 2014 and was gradually withdrawn from the coma, and in September 2014, Schumacher was brought home for further rehabilitation. There have been some things said about the state he is in now, but his family has maintained privacy about his condition, so his exact state isn’t known.