Schumacher claims his place in history

Schumacher's long, hard road is finally over

By BBC Sport Online's Andrew Benson

Michael Schumacher has been trying to win the Formula One World Championship with Ferrari for so long that at times it looked as if it would never happen.

The German's decision to join the famous Italian team was made in 1995, at the tail end of his second consecutive title-winning season with Benetton.

It was a decision based on what some would call arrogance, but what others would say was a true assessment of his own standing within Formula 1.

Schumacher, well aware of his position as the best driver in the world after the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, wanted a challenge. But the one he chose was much stiffer than he ever imagined.

Jody Scheckter won the last Ferrari drivers' title in 1979

He could have gone to any team he wanted. Had he chosen Williams, the dominant team in the mid-1990s, or McLaren, which was to become so from 1998 when the former Williams chief designer Adrian Newey joined it, who knows how many races and championships Schumacher would have won by now.

But where, his manager Willi Weber has said, is the thrill and sense of achievement in the best driver winning in the best car?

Instead, Schumacher chose the leading team that appeared to be furthest away from challenging for the championship - Ferrari.

Schumacher was doubtless tempted by the huge salary that Ferrari's owner Fiat dangled under his nose - an annual fee of US$25 million (about £16m) made him the highest paid driver in history - but that was not the main reason for his decision.

Heritage

Far more importantly, he was after the cachet that winning the title with Ferrari would bring to him.

Schumacher is breathtakingly unaware of the history and heritage of F1, but even he could not fail to notice that this legend had not won a drivers' title since 1979. It was the biggest story in the sport.

Schumacher wanted to be the man to break that duck. That way, he reasoned, he would be hailed as the man who turned Ferrari around. For the first time since the marque first raced in 1948, a driver would be bigger than the biggest name in the sport.

He knew that he would not be champion in 1996, the first year of his time at Ferrari, but he suspected he might be in 1997, and he was all-but certain he would be in 1998. But each time, and last year as well, Ferrari fell short of the mark.

It has not been easy for Schumacher to get this far with Ferrari

Some commentators have allowed his history of failure with Ferrari to blind themselves to Schumacher's qualities as a driver.

He has been branded a cheat, a man who is prepared to deliver the F1 equivalent of a punch below the belt, if it gets him where and what he wants.

Both his Benetton and Ferrari teams have been similarly fingered by speculation, never proven, that they sail far too close to the line for comfort. But nearly everyone in F1 nevertheless agrees that he is the best driver in the world.

Even now, after three years of honing the team that was set up around him, with the technicians he chose to bring from Benetton, Ferrari's car is not quite a match for the McLaren, just as it was not in 1999, '98, or the Williams in 1997. But this year it has been close enough for Schumacher to make the difference he could not quite manage before.

Genius

Time and again through his career, Schumacher has demonstrated his genius: in the wet, where he is peerless; over a race distance, where no one else can match his level of consistency in driving so fast for so long; and in less high-profile situations, like his first lap in a practice session, when no other driver can get so close to the limit of a car on his first flying lap.

You can love Schumacher or loathe him - and many do. You can question his morals and his methods. But you cannot deny him his position as one of the very greatest racing drivers the world has ever seen.

Schumacher has always excelled in the rain

Now, after his long overdue third world title, the burden of pressure and expectation that has hung around him since he joined Ferrari five years ago has lifted and the world is at Schumacher's feet.

He is nine victories away from breaking Alain Prost's record of winning more Grands Prix than anyone else. Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five world titles is also perhaps within his grasp.

Schumacher has always claimed that statistics do not mean anything to him, that winning the title for Ferrari is what matters. This, though, is only partly true.

"I've been discussing statistics with Michael," Prost says, "and I know he is interested in leaving some record behind. But when you are racing, statistics are not something you think about and they are not something which can motivate you."

What will motivate Schumacher from now on, he has not yet revealed, although his response to a recent question along those lines - "There are always new things to keep you motivated" - suggests he already knows what it is.

Heartbreak

Perhaps it is another title with Ferrari. Maybe he wants to smash those records. At just 31, he certainly has the time, if he can find the commitment.

Perhaps, though, after seeing out his contract to the end of 2002, he will retire to a quiet life with his beloved family and dogs.

Whatever it is, he can be sure of one thing. After winning the 2000 F1 world championship for Ferrari, his place in history is secure. The belief that he could succeed where so many others had failed and end a barren period that lasted 21 years, has been proved right.

The heartbreak and the struggles, the years that seemed like they might be lost, were worth it after all.