Ralf Schumacher

Ralf Schumacher (born 30 June 1975) is a German racing driver who currently races for the Maserati team. Ralf has also raced for Porsche, BMW Sauber and Polestar-Volvo His best result was an excellent 6th at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix when he replaced the injured Fernando Alonso for BMW Sauber.

Early life and junior career
Schumacher was born in Hürth, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany on 30 June 1975, He has one older brother, Michael. Schumacher began karting at the age of three. He won the NRW Cup and the Gold Cup in 1991 as well as the German Junior Kart Championship.

Aged 17 Schumacher moved into car racing. In 1995, Schumacher secured pole position and victory in the Macau Grand Prix and finished second in the Masters of Formula 3.

For 1996, Schumacher secured a seat in the Formula Nippon Series, driving for the Team Le Mans alongside Naoki Hattori and he won the series on his first attempt, becoming the first rookie driver to clinch the championship. In the same year, Schumacher entered the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship alongside Hattori again in the GT500 Championship and finished runner-up.

Jordan (1997-98)
Schumacher debuted in Formula 1 with the mid table Jordan-Peugeot team in 1997 and he finished 11th in the standings with 1 podium. In 1998 he remained with the Jordan team alongside world champion team mate Damon Hill. At Spa he was heading for a maiden win and was much quicker than Hill but Eddie Jordan used team orders and he settled for 2nd.

Williams (1999-2004)
In 1999 Schumacher joined Williams alongside Alessandro Zanardi. In his very first race with the team he took a podium at Melbourne. He took every point for Williams that year, finished 6th in the drivers standings with 35 points and achieved 2 podium finishes.

For the 2000 season Schumacher was joined by young team mate Jenson Button. Schumacher scored 24 points which was 12 more than his young team mate which helped the team to 3rd in the constructors.

In 2001, Schumacher took his maiden win at the San Marino Grand Prix and he led every lap and he also led home the first ever sibling 1-2 at the Canadian Grand Prix. He finished 2 places ahead of new team mate Juan Pablo Montoya.

For the 2002 season he suffered a massive crash with Rubens Barrichello at the Australian Grand Prix however 1 race later he won in Malaysia. He finished 4th in the standings 1 place behind team mate Montoya.

In 2003 he missed winter testing due to back pain. However he took consecutive wins in Europe and France and finished 5th in the standings behind Montoya again.

In 2004 Schumacher suffered a 78g impact against the tyre wall on the 9th lap of the USA Grand Prix resulting in concussion and 2 minor fractures to his spinal column. He missed 6 races however 1 race after his return in China, he scored his only podium of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Porsche (2005)
For 2005 Schumacher joined the new entrant Porsche alongside Sebastien Loeb. His only points finish occurred at the 1st race in Australia. He outscored Loeb 2-0, was defeated 6-0 by Villeneuve and 18-0 by Nico Rosberg during their times together. Schumacher labelled the season disastrous.

Volvo (2006)
In 2006 Schumacher was signed by the Polestar-Volvo team alongside Scott Dixon. Schumacher outscored his younger team mate 4-0 however there wasn't much to cheer about, with the car well off the pace of the competition.

Auraline test driver (2007-2008)
After being left without a drive for 2007, Schumacher was signed on as test driver for the Auraline team, a duty undertaken by Takuma Sato the year before. However, after Mika Hakkinen's injury at the Chinese Grand Prix, Schumacher competed in his space for three races, gaining 24 points with a best finish of 5th in Monaco - this makes 2007 the German's most successful season in the UF1 universe. In December 2008, it was announced that Schumacher would step down as test driver, taking a temporary sabbatical from F1.

BMW Sauber and Maserati (2009-present)
In 2009 Schumacher returned to Formula 1 with BMW Sauber to fill in for the injured Fernando Alonso at the Chinese Grand Prix. He delivered with an excellent 6th place finish and 8 points.

He then replaced the outgoing Gary Paffett at Maserati Andretti and in his 7 races at the team he has scored 2 points at the Bahrain Grand Prix which is more than race winning team mate Jarno Trulli over the whole season. He is currently 16th in the standings behind former team mate Scott Dixon. On 20 October 2009, it was confirmed that Schumacher would be staying at Maserati for 2010.